Iván Vargas (translator) has an M.A. in Romance Studies–Latin American Studies from Duke University. Upon obtaining his law degree and finishing a thesis on the formation of new colonial identities within 17th-century legal discourse in New Granada, Vargas entered the Bioscience and Law M.A. program at the National University of Colombia (NUC), where he developed research on intellectual collective property rights and traditional knowledge in the Amazon. He has also served as editorial coordinator for a journal on socio-legal studies at the NUC-Law School, and as a junior researcher for the Center for Public Policy Research at the University of California-Davis, he co-authored an article on expert testimony in cases of child abuse as well as a study on Learning Experiences of Spanish-Speaking adults throughout California. He is currently interested in environmental constitutionalism, and political and cultural processes in the Global South.