My research examines the life trajectories of children and youth who face precarious futures. Drawing on visual and participatory methodologies, I frame a phenomenological focus on children’s everyday experiences and imaginations within a broader analysis of the social and economic contexts that impact upon young lives. 

For the past 15 years, I have been conducting ethnographic fieldwork with Matses communities in Peruvian Amazonia. I return annually to their communities, which has allowed me to conduct a longitudinal analysis into how Amazonian childhoods are changing through time and in the context of national and global shifts. My award-winning monograph, Children of the Rainforest (Rutgers University Press) proposes a theory of children’s imagination and shifting desires as powerful catalysts of socioeconomic change, recognising children and youth as dynamic agents who drive their societies towards new and uncharted horizons. The book received the 2024 Book Prize from the ACYIG – American Anthropological Association.

Funded by a British Academy Youth Futures grant (£300,000), my current research explores youth futures in Amazonia through coproduction of ethnographic animation – a novel methodology that I designed and developed with professional animators, Indigenous researchers, and Amazonian artists. This brings together ethnographic techniques with animated films written and coproduced by young people themselves, blending their lived experiences with visionary scenarios informed by their desired futures and imagined pasts. I apply ethnographic animation both as a research method to explore young people’s unheard needs and aspirations, and as an impact strategy that enables them to envisage alternative lifestyles and identify tangible pathways towards them. 

I am working with UNESCO and Peru’s Ministry of Education to embed coproduction of digital animation in the training programs for Indigenous educators and students, leading to large-scale impact through policy change, digital transfer, and digitalisation in rural areas. 

Website

https://wavesofchange.org.uk/portfolio-item/youth-futures-in-the-amazon-rainforest/

Social Media

@drcamimorelli

Supervision

I am keen to supervise postgraduate students interested in childhood and youth, Amazonia, imagined and sustainable futures, visual anthropology, and participatory methodologies.