Elena is a cultural worker with experience in education in Ecuador, and curation and public programming in Bonaire. She obtained her BA in Anthropology from Macalester College in 2017 and completed her MA in Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Amsterdam in 2025.
In her thesis she researched postcolonial, non-western, and ecological mechanisms to challenge colonial thinking patterns and worldviews. As a continuation of this work, she is currently researching organizations, artists, and community workers based in The Netherlands, who subvert and offer alternatives to neoliberal ways of working in the culture sector. This project aims to bring to the surface existing regionally, and culturally specific models, and methods that can be used to unsettle cultural work in Western Europe.
Critical Heritage Ecologies 