Raffaele is a PhD candidate at Yale School of the Environment and a Research Fellow with the Yale Center for Environmental Justice, working at the intersection of political ecology, environmental sociology, and law. Their current research focuses on the sociopolitical dimensions of Rights of Nature and Environmental Personhood, with particular attention to how legal personhood frameworks interact with Western property regimes, Indigenous sovereignty, and the limits of liberal law.
Raffaele recently completed five months of fieldwork in Whanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand studying Te Awa Tupua, the first river in the world to receive legal personhood. They are now working on a manuscript based on this research. The manuscript draws on mixed methods – ethnography and legal analysis alongside GIS, spatial data science, and empirical social research – to examine the social dimensions and material impacts of Rights of Nature to communities on the ground.
Raffaele’s other work includes critical research on green capitalism (i.e. carbon offsets, biodiversity credits) and the relationships between sovereign Indigenous nations and the American state. They have published research and scholarly writing with Issues in Science and Technology and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, with publications forthcoming in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space and Public Books.
Raffaele has completed research on behalf of, and in collaboration with, several entities focused on climate and environmental justice, including the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, The Land Trust Alliance, the National Indian Carbon Coalition, Navajo Power, the Yurok Tribe, and more.