About

She holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, a Bachelor’s degree in History from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), and a Master’s degree in Gender Studies from the same institution. After several years working as a professor and researcher focused on the history of cooking and gastronomy, she is now a research project manager at UPF. Her expertise includes grant writing and management, research communication strategies, support for the implementation of digital humanities tools, and team coordination. She currently supports several research groups within UPF’s Department of Humanities.

She is a postdoctoral researcher in Archaeometry at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Her research focuses on ceramic archaeometry, with particular emphasis on medieval and modern ceramics, exploring how these materials were produced, traded, and used in the past. She combines scientific analysis with archaeological perspectives and digital tools such as 3D documentation, modelling, and visualisation. She has participated in several international research projects and archaeological excavations, with experience ranging from laboratory analysis to fieldwork in diverse contexts.

Carlos is a Puerto Rican archaeobotanist specialised in the study of plant microremains, such as phytoliths and starch grains. Using these approaches, he seeks to investigate past food systems, foodways, and socioecological interactions. He has conducted research in the Caribbean, North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia, across archaeological contexts ranging from the Neolithic to the present day in collaboration with international institutions and ERC-funded projects. As lead archaeobotanist, he is responsible for investigating island lifeways and foodway practices through the integration of archaeobotanical remains with ethnographic and historical sources.

She is a predoctoral researcher at UPF with a solid background in archaeology. After studying Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Amsterdam, where she gained fieldwork experience in the Netherlands, Curaçao, and Greece, she specialized in heritage management. Her master’s thesis focused on archaeology in Curaçao, which led her to become one of the first Curaçaoan archaeologists at the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management Foundation (NAAM). Since then, she has worked to protect the island’s heritage, specializing in the Historical period and combining archaeology with heritage management.

Iris van Vlimmeren, BA is currently a Research Master’s student at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and an intern with the IslandLives project. Her academic focus lies in the social and demographic history of the ABC islands, with particular attention to themes of gender, religion, and disability history. She has previously contributed to the Historical Database of Suriname and the Caribbean, and completed an internship at the Mongui Maduro Library in Curaçao, where she helped develop public-facing databases and educational materials to broaden access to archival resources.

Emilio is a graduate in Anthropology from the Central University of Venezuela, specializing in the application of geographic information technologies in archaeological environments. He possesses extensive expertise in performing spatial analyses using advanced software such as QGIS, gvSIG, and ArcGIS Pro. Currently, he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Geographic Information Technologies at the University of Extremadura. In addition to his research, he has served as a professor for the socio-technological project course at the Experimental University of Greater Caracas (UNEXCA).

Christine is a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, holding a BA in Archaeology from Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, and an MSc in Zooarchaeology from the University of York, UK. Her expertise lies in using traditional zooarchaeology and biomolecular analysis to study past human-animal interactions. Her research involves lab work, where she has conducted morphological, isotopic, and ancient DNA analysis. She also has been working as a faunal analyst and field archaeologist in Canada and assisting in fieldwork in Curaçao since 2021.

Oliver is a heritage specialist with ample experience working with communities in the Southern Caribbean, focusing on Indigenous identity and heritage since 2014. He has been active on Bonaire since 2017, conducting master’s and doctoral research, alongside completing two internships with the Public Entity of Bonaire (Openbaar Lichaam Bonaire). The first internship was with Museo Boneiru at the Sekshon di Kultura, Arte i Literatura under the Society and Health department (2019), and the second at the Heritage Desk in Spatial Planning and Development (2022). In 2023, he organized community outreach events for the Konkurso de Arte Nos Prome Boneriano. Through these regional initiatives, Oliver has built the networks and expertise needed to facilitate meaningful, long-term community engagement and knowledge transfer between IslandLives and Bonairean stakeholders.