About me

I’m a social anthropologist and currently a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Barcelona.

Already in my BA at the University of Aix-Marseille, I developed an interest in urban infrastructures and everyday mobilities. Also, I have been fascinated with Ecuador ever since I lived and worked there for a local NGO in 2013. This is why, for my MA thesis (University of Barcelona 2017-18), I completed my first long-term fieldwork on the construction of a tram in Cuenca, Ecuador. At that time, the construction project was suspended and surrounded by multiple controversies, which ended up constituting the main focus of my research.

By the time I returned to the city in 2020 for a second fieldwork, the construction had finally been completed and other projects of “sustainable mobility” were being developed by the local government. This second fieldwork was undertaken as part of my PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester (2019-2023). The aim of my doctoral research was to explore what the notion of sustainability came to mean and do in this specific context, and how it shaped the urban lifeworlds affected by the interventions (more on this here).

The result of this research was my thesis “The Cosmopolitics of Urban Sustainability: Infrastructures, Mobilities and Modernities in Cuenca, Ecuador”, supervised by Penny Harvey and Jolynna Sinanan. In 2024-25, I received a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship award to turn my thesis into a book. This fellowship was completed at University College Cork, under the guidance of James Cuffe.

As of September 2025, I am a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Barcelona, mentored by Roger Sansi. As part of this fellowship, I have started a new research on heritage processes in Mallorca, focused on how heritage and tourism shape diverging, (un)livable environments. In parallel, I continue working on various aspects of my Ecuadorian material, including issues of populism.

Do not hesitate to get in touch to discuss any ideas or projects!

Email: samrume@ub.edu