Cristobal Bonelli’s academic and professional journey began with his undergraduate studies in clinical psychology at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Chile (1994-1999). Following this, he specialized in family therapy through the Milan Approach in Italy (2002-2006). Subsequently, he pursued a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh (2008-2012), followed by postdoctoral research training in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Amsterdam (2012-2016). Currently, he is an Associate Professor in Anthropology of Sustainable Transitions and Territorial Transformations at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and contributes to the “Health, Care, and the Body” research group.

Throughout the past two decades, Cristobal has cultivated a diverse and interdisciplinary mindset, shaped by his experiences in Chile, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Drawing inspiration from systemic psychotherapy and cyberneticians like Gregory Bateson, Heinz von Förster, Humberto Maturana, and Francisco Varela, he led experimental mental health projects in Italy, engaging with principles of democratic psychiatry advocated by figures such as Franco Basaglia. His Ph.D. training in the UK and ethnographic research in Chile in intercultural communication within public health devices, explored the nuanced understanding of difference beyond conventional cultural analyses, actively participating in debates on "ontology" in decolonial anthropology. More particularly, his Phd analyzed the ways in which public health services respond to particular indigenous illnesses not detectable or treatable by biomedical technicians , shading light on the equivocal
understandings of health, care, and the body at stake in intercultural relations in Southern Chile.

Since joining the University of Amsterdam in 2012, he has deepened his understanding of science and technology studies, appreciating the importance of specificity and the transformative potential of world-making practices. More recently, amid contemporary climate and geopolitical uncertainties, Cristobal's research has delved into the conceptualization of crucial materials such as water and lithium in highly extractivist environments In Northern Chile, where globalizing technological strategies for planetary decarbonization are taking (and making) place.

Currently, Cristobal leads the ERC project titled 'Worlds of Lithium,' investigating the societal impacts of lithium extraction and lithium-ion batteries in global energy transition efforts. Through empirical studies in Chile, China, and Norway, the project sheds light on our  interdependence and co-constitution with these materials and technologies, exploring their transformative implications within the complexities of modern life in times of climate change.

Postgraduate level

• The Politics of Sustainability: Environments, Cultures, Materials /  Multispecies ecologies and Planetary Matter

Undergraduate level

• Environments, Alterities and the Anthropological Imagination / Practicing Etnography / Ethnographies and academic writing

I am also Supervisor at the Master on Cultural and Social Anthropology, at the  Research Master's in Social Sciences, at the  Master in International Development Studies and at the Master in Medical Anthropology and Sociology