Estrella Castillo

Estrella is an incoming (2020) Ph.D. student in the History of Science and Medicine, with undergraduate experience studying and organizing around topics in environmental anthropology. Her senior thesis, "Perpetuating Peyote: Faith, Medicine, and Knowledge Production," considers diverse ways of interpreting and relating to the "vulnerable" p/Peyote cactus–scientistic, spiritual, and otherwise–to contextualize some of the parallels and divergences in actionable narratives encountered amongst communities in Mexico and the USA. Estrella found that the divergent opinions on what p/Peyote is and does influence not only how it is used or related epistemically but what histories one chooses to grapple with while assessing appropriate conservation and cultural sustainment efforts.

Graduate Fellow, 2020-2021

Pedagogy Fellow, 2022-2023