rafalobo.com

Rafaella Lobo, PhD

rlobo.phd@gmail.com

I am a social scientist with broad interdisciplinary training. My background is in Global Environmental Politics, and I am generally interested in global biodiversity governance from the perspective of the Global South. My goal is to advance our understanding of the main challenges and opportunities for developing countries to exercise agency in the unequal power dynamics of international relations theory and practice – which could contribute not only to more equitable and legitimate global governance, but also more effective conservation practice.

I was born and raised in Goiânia, Brazil, where I got a bachelor’s degree in international relations, from PUC-GO. I then went to the University of Central Florida, in Orlando, to get a master’s degree in political science – where I was lucky enough to be advised by Dr. Peter Jacques. While I had always been broadly under the global environmental politics umbrella, being in the United States (and Florida in particular) opened up a lot of opportunities to study marine conservation biology & policy. Although I eventually resumed my social science focus, I believe my ‘hands-on’ experiences in the natural sciences gave me an important perspective, making me a more well-rounded conservationist. During my time in Florida, I took courses outside my comfort zone, such as marine biology and advanced time-series analysis, I interned and volunteered for a couple of years with the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, where I gained invaluable experience in dolphin survey, photo ID, stranding response, necropsy assistance, among many other skills. That led me to an internship at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, and from there, to a research analyst position with Dr. Andy Read at the Duke Marine Lab, in Eastern North Carolina – where I was later admitted to the PhD program in Marine Science and Conservation, beginning in the fall of 2018. I graduated from my PhD in May, 2024 and I still live in NC with my husband, Andrew, and two lovely kitties (who have been moving around with me since Brazil).

It has been an amazing journey, and I would have never made it this far if it weren’t for all the wonderful humans I met along the way. Under the incredible mentorship of Dr. Lisa Campbell, my PhD advisor, I explored my interests in global biodiversity governance, particularly at the intersection of conservation & development and North-South issues. With a wonderful Collaborative Event Ethnography team, we’ve followed almost all preparatory meetings of the Convention on Biological Diversity leading up to COP15 – a work I dropped from my dissertation due to several COVID-related delays, but I hope to go back to soon enough. My dissertation focused on the politics of whaling and whale conservation from the perspective of Latin America, represented by the Grupo Buenos Aires at the Internaitonal Whaling Commission.

When I am not reading or writing, I am most likely found in the garden, in the kitchen (cooking what I harvested from the garden), at the beach, or podcasting. Gardening and beach volleyball have been amazing sources of mental and physical health through the years.