Elena Palma (she/her/lei) is a doctoral researcher at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (LMU) and a member of the research group Learning Nature(s). Born on the shores of the River Dese and now based along the Leogra Stream, she has been investigating rivers as socio-ecological actors and territorial elements since 2018. She holds an MA in Anthropology from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Since 2019, Elena has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork with Mapuche-Pewenche communities in Alto BioBío (Chile), examining local relationships with the dammed BioBío River and, in particular, the dynamics of detachment, reconnection, and care that emerge around it. Her doctoral research focuses on how children in Alto Biobío engage with the river and the more-than-human world amid socio-ecological change. She particularly focuses on how children learn practices of care and respect, how they develop environmental and relational sensibilities, and how white-water sports contribute to these processes.

Elena collaborates closely with several local organisations and employs a multimodal and participatory methodological approach. Her work combines participant observation, photography, video and sound recording, play-based methods, drawing, and child-centred field techniques to generate an in-depth and grounded understanding of children’s experiences and riverine life in the region.

Conferences: 

Paper: ‘Damming a river in a relational land: socio-ecological transformation of Pewenche people and their River’. At SALSA Conference 2025. Panel:  ‘Engaging with more-than-human world: conceptualization, relations and interactions’.

Paper: ‘Learning to Care for the River in a Sacrifice Zone: different approaches to Care and Respect among Pewenche people’. At Finnish Anthropological Society Conference 2025. Panel: Knowing Nature to care for it: ecological action in the making.

Paper: ‘Learning with(in) the river through kayaking: experiences of Mapuche-Pewenche children in Kayakimün’. At the World Anthropological Union Congress 2024. Panel: Poetry in Motion - Creativity and Knowledge Production in Sport. 

Paper: ‘The Death and Life of a Dammed River: Past and Present Experiences from the BioBío River, Chile’. At the American Anthropological Association Conference 2023 in Toronto. Panel: Presencing Death: a Relational Anthropology of Mortality. 

Paper: ‘Giving Voice to Local Rivers’ Will: a Mapuche-Pehuenche rafting team’. At the Finnish Anthropological Society Conference 2023. Panel: Politics of Animism. 

Works: 

Confluenze: Divenire Movimenti Fluviali (Confluences: Becoming Riverine Movements), an ethnographic photo exhibition on people’s relationships with the BioBío River. At Palazzo Toaldi Capra, Schio (IT). Project sponsored by Schio Municipality (Space Invaders Project). October 2025.

Trame Fluviali (River Weave), discussion about local and global dynamics that detach people from their local rivers and what are the strategies for reconnections. With PhD Lisa Zecchin (UniPd). At FESAV (Science Festival of Alto Vicentino), Schio (Italy). October 2025. 

Culturing the Change: Fermentation for Planetary Health, an experimental photo exhibition on the traditional practices of Fermentation and how they can help to address climate and ecological crises. The exhibition was developed with Sevgi Mutlu Sirakova and Nakul Heroor at the Deutsche Museum with the support of the Munich Science Communication Lab. June-August 2023.