Ulises J. Espinoza's research broadly explores how value, politics, and knowledge production intertwine in the creation, practice, and institutionalization of scientific knowledge within medical systems and contemporary intellectual property regimes. This work extends to examining the biopiracy impacting Indigenous communities. Through an interdisciplinary biocultural approach, Ulises situates his research at the intersections of biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, and science and technology studies (STS). His work focuses on two main areas:

1. Evaluating the ascription of “human universals”: Ownership as a case study.

In this work, Ulises examines how legal regimes with universal assumptions of ownership and property—especially regarding intellectual property—are valued, upheld, and reimagined to support the logics of biopiracy and extractivism, particularly concerning medicinal and cultural knowledge. This inquiry is a central aspect of his current field projects among Achuar and Shuar communities in Southeastern Ecuador.

2. Evaluating the constructs that feed into the creation of science: Race based biology as a case study.

In this work, Ulises investigates biomedical politics, particularly how race-based science is created and disseminated within medical systems, analyzing how biometrics and health-related algorithms perpetuate colonial frameworks that affect health outcomes.

Ulises has collaborated with anthropologists, psychologists, and philosophers around the world on cross-cultural studies related to various topics around human thinking.

Diversifying the perspectives that are seen as worthy of creating knowledge in our field is an urgent priority for Ulises.

If you are interested in collaboration, contact at the email below.

uespinoza@princeton.edu