Dr. Cristian Terry

Travel and Food Anthropologist | Development & Applied Social Sciences | Sustainable Tourism & Food Systems

I am a travel and food anthropologist with a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Lausanne and a Master in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. My work lies at the intersection of anthropology, development, and sustainability, with a focus on tourism, food mobility, and human-environment relations.

I specialize in understanding how global dynamics—such as tourism, climate change, and food globalization—impact rural livelihoods, heritage practices, and social inequalities. My field experience spans over a decade of applied research and intercultural collaboration, notably in the Potato Park, where I studied the effects of tourism and climate change on traditional agricultural knowledge, local economies, and food sovereignty.

I co-founded the Grupo Reflexivo de Estudios en Antropología del Turismo (GREAT), a Swiss-Peruvian academic network that promotes critical reflections on tourism. I also contributed to the curation of Le mal du voyage, a temporary exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum of Neuchâtel, combining ethnographic insight with science vulgarization.

My current research explores the global circulation and hybridization of cuisine, analyzing how food practices and meanings shift across borders. I also investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic altered travel patterns, deepened social inequalities, and reshaped food systems through autoethnographic and multisited approaches. Alongside this, I actively publish academic articles and present papers at international conferences, disseminating my research to both scholarly and wider audiences.

In addition, I work as an independent consultant, collaborating with tourism operators to design innovative travel experiences such as Outdoor Escape Games, and advising on culturally sensitive tourism strategies. I also have long-term experience in higher education in Switzerland and Peru, where I teach research methods, develop pedagogical tools, and mentor students in their research projects.

Fluent in Spanish, French, English, and Italian, and with a good understanding of German, I bring strong intercultural communication skills and a passion for bridging academic insight with real-world applications. My work is driven by a commitment to co-creating more inclusive, reflective, and sustainable approaches to travel and food systems.

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ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

ARTICLES (PEERED-REVIEW JOURNALS)

2024 - Navigating COVID-induced (im)mobilities: Human Agency during Travel Restrictions and Uncertainties. Critique of Anthropology. Special Issue “Navigating hurdles and reconfiguring (im)mobilities in time of corona”, vol. 4, n° 4, pp. 492-512. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0308275X241301962

2022 - The Potato Superstar: Food Sovereignty and Rural Tourism in the Potato Park (Cusco, Peru). International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, vol. 8, n° 4, pp. 391–415. https://doi.org/10.1504 /IJTA.2021.123196

2021 - Tourism, Education and Women’s Empowerment: The Case of the Women Weavers of Chinchero (Cusco, Peru). Atlántida: Revista canaria de ciencias sociales, n° 12, pp. 131-157. https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/atlantida/article/view/2629

2021 - Social Distancing or Distancing the Social? A Non- Anthropocentric Approach in Anthropology. Sociedade e Cultura, vol. 24. https://doi.org/10.5216/sec.v24.66203

2021 - La "nueva convivencia social" en tiempos de pandemia: Aproximación desde la auto-etnografía y el caso peruano. Textos y Contextos desde el Sur (Número especial), pp. 101-128. http://www.revistas.unp.edu.ar/index.php/textosycontextos /article/view/142

2020 - Weaving Social Change(s) or Changes of Weaving? The Case Study of Andean Textiles in Cusco and Bolivia. Artl@s Bulletin, vol. 9, n° 1, pp. 68-89. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/artlas/vol9/iss1/6/

2020 - (with Geremia Cometti & Emanuele Fabiano). Le pèlerinage des Q'eros (Cuzco, Pérou) au sanctuaire du Seigneur de Quyllurit'i. Une ethnographie itinérante de la connexion entre humains, lieux sacrés et divinités. América Crítica, vol. 4, n° 1, pp. 35-52. https://doi.org/10.13125/americacritica/4071

2017 - Turismo Rural Comunitario: ¿una alternativa para las comunidades andinas? El caso del agro-ecoturismo del Parque de la Papa (Cusco, Perú). Pasos: Journal of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, no 18, pp. 139-159. http://www.pasosonline.org /Publicados/pasosoedita/PSEdita18.pdf

OTHER ARTICLES

2022 - “Producir industrialmente nuestra cultura”. Estrategias de producción textil en los Andes frente al turismo: El caso de Chawaytire (Cusco, Perú). Revista Andina, n° 57, pp. 127–157.

2021 - Tejiendo hoy para nosotros y los turistas: perspectivas e interrogantes en torno a la actividad textil en la región andina de Cusco. Revista Sarañani: Conservación sostenible en comunidad, n° 4, pp. 70-71 (October 2021).

2021 - Constituer une collection "au-delà des classiques". Catalog of the temporary exhibition of the Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel (MEN) Le mal du voyage : pratiques et imaginaires touristiques, pp. 260-267.

2020 - Desvestirse de los imaginarios, repensar América andina en su complejidad de vestuario: una aproximación etnográfica a través de los trajes típicos en los Andes cusqueños (Perú). La revista, n° 80, pp. 39-52. Journal of the Swiss Society of Americanists. Special Issue "Pensar los estudios latino-americanos en Suiza". https://www.sag-ssa.ch/index.php/fr-fr/bulletin-ssa- la-revista/bssa-80-2020.

BOOK CHAPTERS

2022 - I Stay Home (If I Can): COVID-19 and Social Inequality in Peru: A View from Auto-Ethnography. In S. Roy & D. Nandy (Eds.), Understanding Post-COVID-19 Social and Cultural Realities: Global Context (pp. 137–150). Singapore: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0809-5_8.

2022 - Catch me if you can, Coronavirus! Récits de voyage et de confinement. In L. Arthur (Ed.), Échos vides: la poétique du Coronavirus (p. 214-221). Lyon: Let-Know Café (Institut de recherche sur le soin et l'accès aux soins)

2022 - (with Bruno Chichizola). Le Pérou face au Covid-19. Paradoxes et limites des mesures de confinement. In C. Laval (Ed.), Nos vies en jachère: la République du Coronavirus (p. 119-226). Lyon: Let- Know Café (Institut de recherche sur le soin et l'accès aux soins).

2016 - Por una antropología del turismo en el Cusco: perspectivas y pertinencia. Estudio de cambios e impactos del turismo. In J. Flores Ochoa, M. H. Romero Pacheco,D. Pozo Ceballoa & C. Rado Yañez (Eds.). Tinkuy en los Andes. Nuevos enfoques sobre la cultura andina (pp. 265-297). Cusco: Centro de Estudios Andinos.

KEYWORDS

Travel, tourism, and mobility
Rural tourism, tourist imaginary
Social and environnemental development
Indigenous population’s inclusion
Women’s empowerment
Human - Non-human relationship
Covid-19, impacts, government measures, social distancing, new social cohabitation, confinement measures
Textile heritage, social change, museum collection, material culture
Pilgrimage
Food sovereignty
Climate change
Latin American studies Ethnography, auto- ethnography, multi-sited ethnography
Europe, Peru, Bolivia, Andes

PAPER AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

2024 - Multi-sited Ceviche: Unveiling the Internationalization and Hibridization of the Peruvian Cuisine. The Umbra’s Institute Biennial Food Conference, Perugia, Italy (June 14, 2024).

2023 - Boom gastronómico y turismo en Perú: Entre tradiciones e innovations culinarias. ICA (Internation Congress of Americanists) 57°, Iguaçu, Brazil (July 20, 2023)

2022 - Navigating through the Corona Waves: Stories of Travel Restrictions, Uncertainty, and Travelers' Strategies. EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists) Conference, Belfast, Ireland (June 27, 2022)

2022 - (with Raphael Schapira) COVID Vaccine Hesitancy: Preliminary Research and Methodological Considerations. AMADES (Association d' anthropologie médicale et de la Santé) Conference "COVID-19 through the lens of social sciences in Switzerland", Lausanne, Switzerland (June 3, 2022)

2021 - How Has the Covid-19 Pandemic Affected Our Research Praxis in Anthropology? A Reflexive Contribution through a Pandemic Auto-ethnography in Peru. Medical Anthropology Young Researchers Workshop, Warsaw, Poland (August 19, 2021)

2021 - Food Sovereignty, Tourism and Climate Change effects: The Case of the Potato Park (Cusco, Peru). 7° AIBR (Antropólogos Ibero-Americanos en Red) International Congress of Anthropology, Villa Real, Portugal (July 29, 2021)

2021 - COVID-19: 'The Best Thing that Could Have Happened'? New Job Opportunities During the Pandemic in Peru. Tallinn University Conference, Tallinn, Estonia (June 18, 2021)

2021 - ¿Vivir del turismo en tiempos de COVID-19? Situación, perspectivas y desafíos del sector turismo: El caso de Cusco (Perú). 39° LASA (Latin American Studies Association) International Congress, Vancouver, Canada (May 28, 2021)

2017 - Traje típico y etnicidad comercial en los Andes cusqueños: hacia una perspectiva prágmatica de la cultura material y la identidad étnica. III° AIBR International Congress of Anthropology, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico(November 9, 2017)

2017 - ¿Tejiendo alternativas o retejiendo asimetrías en el turismo? El caso de los centros textiles de Chinchero (Cusco, Perú). III° AIBR International Congress of Anthropology, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (November 9, 2017)

2017 - When ANT weaves? Estudio de la artesanía textil contemporánea en los Andes peruanos. 35° LASA International Congress, Lima, Peru (May 1, 2017)

2016 - Tourism and the Dialectics of Exclusion and Inclusion. From Machu Picchu to Turismo Rural Comunitario in Cusco (Peru): Towards an inclusion of the “excluded”?. Annual Meeting of the Swiss Anthropological Association, Lausanne, Switzerland (November 11, 2016)

2016 - Turismo Rural Comunitario: ¿una alternativa para las comunidades andinas ? El caso del agroecoturismo del Parque de la Papa (Cusco, Perú). II° AIBR International Congress of Anthropology, Barcelona, Spain (September 7, 2016)

2016 - Tourism and Applied Perspectives in Poverty Reduction and Bio-Cultural Heritage in the Potato Park (Cusco, Peru). 76° Annual Meeting of the SfAA (Society for Applied Anthropology), Vancouver, Canadá (March 31, 2016). Featured on the panel "SfAA Tourism and Heritage Student Paper Competition" (article selected for the competition)

SCIENCE POPULARIZATION

BLOG ARTICLES

2021 - Covid-19 et inégalités sociales dans les Amériques : une analyse auto-ethnographique du cas péruvien. COVIDAM : La COVID dans les Amériques. Blog of the Institut des Amériques & iGLOBES (April 23, 2021). https://covidam.institutdesameriques.fr/covid-19-et- inegalites-sociales-dans-les-ameriques-analyse-auto- ethnographique-du-cas-peruvien/
2020 - L'invité invisible. Mariages à l'heure du COVID-19 : un récit auto- ethnographique. VIRAL - Les multiples vies du COVID-19. Blog de l'Université de Lausanne (December 17, 2020). https://wp.unil.ch/viral/linvite-invisible-mariage-a-lheure-du- covid-19-un-recit-auto-ethnographique-a-cusco-perou/
2020 - Le nouveau coronavirus a-t-il du soroche ? Controverse sur les effets de l'altitude sur le COVID -19 : le cas de Cusco (Pérou). VIRAL - Les multiples vies du COVID-19. Blog de l'Université de Lausanne (December 15, 2020). https://wp.unil.ch/viral/le- nouveau-coronavirus-a-t-il-du-soroche-controverse-sur-les- effets-de-laltitude-sur-le-covid-19-le-cas-de-cusco-perou/
2020 - En voyage à deux pas de chez soi. Balade d'un touriste clandestin à Cusco. COVIES20. Vivre (dé)confiné-e-s, penser en commun. Blog of the Université de Lausanne (June 15, 2020). https://covies20.com/2020/06/15/en-voyage-a-deux-pas-de- chez-soi-balade-dun-touriste-clandestin-a-cusco/
2020 - Tourism, food sovereignty and 'good living'. The Potato Park in Peru. Tourism Watch. https://www.tourism- watch.de/en/focus/tourism-food-sovereignty-and-good-livin

PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

2022 - Surfeando las olas de COVID-19: viajando en tiempos de pandemia. "Narrativas Visuales/Visual Narratives. Photography as methodology in Social Sciences".https://narrativasvisuales.com/2023/02/27/surfeando -las-olas-de-covid-19-viajando-en-tiempos-de-pandemia/ (February 27, 2023)
2021 Away: Tejiendo el cotidiano en los Andes. "Narrativas Visuales/Visual Narratives. Photography as methodology in Social Sciences". https://narrativasvisuales.com/2021/01/22/away- tejiendo-el-cotidiano-en-los-andes-rurales/(January 22, 2021)
2020 - Sobrevolando los Andes: una mirada desde la variedad y contemporaneidad de prácticas rurales en la región de Cusco, Perú. Revista de antropología y arqueología (Colombia), Antípoda, n°40, Special Issue"Dinámicas y debates actuales sobre el campesinado en América Latina" (July 2020).

FILMOGRAPHY

Il Signore di Quyllurit'i. Ethnographic documentary produced by Cometti Geremia, Fabiano Emanuele, Terry Cristian & Mathieu Ulysse. Broadcast on the Swiss TV show "Sottosopra", RSI, Season 7, Episode 9 (August 12, 2018). https://www.rsi.ch/play/tv/redirect/detail/10774097