Associate professor in the Faculty of International, Political and Urban studies. His research revolves around the intersection of infrastructure, the state and social conflict. His latest book, Frontier Road: Power, history, and the everyday state in the Colombian Amazon (Wiley-Blackwell 2017) critically examines the process of state-building in the Colombian region of Putumayo through the history and ethnography of a road. He is interested in the dissemination of knowledge beyond academia through alternative formats, including audiovisual research.

Between 2014 and 2018 he directed Suspension, his first feature-length documentary film. This film, part of a trilogy on land, air and water transport in the Colombian Amazon, has screened in several film festival worldwide and received various international awards. His current interests include the ethnography of infrastructure and the politics and practices of development in frontier regions.