Deborah Delgado Pugley

Deborah Delgado Pugley is associate professor of sociology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and a Visiting Scholar at KU Leuven. She is also a research associate for the Andes Amazon Program at the Field Museum in Chicago. Her scholarly work primarily investigates environmental and climate policies in the tropics.  With her extensive fieldwork across the Amazon regions of Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil, Delgado-Pugley has spearheaded research initiatives focused on climate change, Indigenous Peoples movements, human rights, natural resource management, conservation, and gender. 

Her research is deeply committed to advancing environmental justice. One notable publication, co-authored with Vania Martínez, En un ambiente tóxico. Ser madres después de un derrame de petróleo (CLACSO, 2020), delves into the environmental and health emergencies faced by the Indigenous Kukama women in Loreto, Peru, after an oil spill. This critical study highlights the urgent need for policies that are responsive to the unique challenges of Indigenous communities. 

Beyond academia, Delgado Pugley is engaged in the global climate policy arena, having participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change discussions for over a decade. She has also collaborated with Indigenous organizations in the Amazon, and her applied research has supported environmental NGOs and international agencies such as the FAO and UNDP.

She is currently working on a book titled “Panamazonia: Indigenous Peoples and the Political Economy of Climate Change,” based on her ongoing collaborations with Amazonian organizations.

Delgado Pugley holds a Ph.D. in International Development from the Catholic University of Louvain and Sociology from the EHESS Paris School of Social Sciences Studies.