Summary of Skills

Applied social science researcher & anthropologist (PhD) with 8+ years of experience leading qualitative research on human, technological, and environmental systems. Skilled in managing the end-to-end research lifecycle, recruiting and engaging diverse stakeholder groups, and distilling nuanced qualitative data into high-impact strategic insights. Strong background in research project management, research award/grant operations, and methodology/methods instruction, with a proven track record of driving evidence-based outcomes for cross-functional audiences. Part-time yoga teacher, full-time yogi, daily meditator.

Research and Operations Expertise

I am an environmental and medical anthropologist. For my doctoral dissertation, I designed and executed a multi-year study on complex human-environment systems on St. Kitts in the Caribbean. I managed $220,000+ in grant funding, conducted 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, and interviewed 300+ key stakeholders—from local low-income farmers to scientists, business owners, and policymakers—to deliver actionable insights on human-wildlife conflict, climate adaptation, and environmental intervention. I have served as a student affiliate of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at UC Berkeley, and a student lead of the REParations and Anti-Institutional Racism (REPAIR) Project at UC San Francisco. 

I bring a proven ability to jump off the deep end into unfamiliar domains, rapidly synthesize complex qualitative data, and build strong cross-functional relationships. I am energized by roles where I can harness research rigor, strategic storytelling, and stakeholder management to drive meaningful systems change and advance collective well-being. I love learning and would thrive in roles where I can stay up to date on innovative research and build relationships with diverse people who care about social justice.

Outside of my academic research and teaching, I am a RYT-200-hour certified yoga teacher who teaches vinyasa (hatha), power, and restorative styles of modern postural yoga. In my yoga teaching, I combine bodily postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation to support health and well-being. 

📩 Open to strategic insights, social impact research, qualitative research, and program operations roles. Let’s connect! Email me at brimatusovsky@gmail.com 

Special Interests

Anthropology of science; human-environment entanglements; Queer Feminist Approaches to Anthropology; environmental racial justice; Caribbean literature; post-colonial and anti-colonial theory; Science and Technology Studies (STS); consent; multi-species ethnography; critical pest studies; ethnographic and qualitative research; the supernatural; inclusive pedagogy; consent; trauma-informed pedagogy

Dissertation Research 

What does it mean for people and animals to be labeled as problems? My dissertation, Primates and Plantation Futures: Unsettling Science and Consent on St. Kitts, examines this question by reframing the issue of invasive green monkeys on St. Kitts, a predominantly Black Caribbean island. Kittitian people and green monkeys suffer from food insecurity, a phenomenon locally known as “the monkey problem.” Scientists, veterinarians, policymakers, and primatologists have sought to address the monkey problem since the abolition of sugar plantations on St. Kitts in 2004, but have been unsuccessful. I conducted 16 months of ethnographic inquiry and over 300 semi-structured interviews with interlocutors across farms, laboratories, local archives, and eco-tourist destinations. My research on the monkey problem reveals how the designation of people and animals as problems is used to justify the reproduction of plantation logics predicated on non-consent and violence. 

By unsettling science and consent on St. Kitts, I make three distinct contributions to anthropology and related fields. First, in conducting discourse analysis of descriptions and stories of the monkey problem in research, news stories, science, and my interlocutors’ stories, I contend that mismatched sensorial attunements – different somatic experiences and perceptions of the world – lead to disagreements and conflicts about the nature of the monkey problem. For example, I contend that technical jargon – descriptions of rigor and animal welfare in scientific experimentation and environmental intervention – is used to reproduce culturally informed beliefs that certain people and animals are problems under the guise of objective scientific knowledge. Second, I argue that environmental racism is sustained through the persistent logics of the former plantation economy, which continue to affect everyday life in different forms. Third, I assert that only by attending to the non-consents of people and animals silenced by unequal power relations, past and present, can we move away from reproducing plantation logics and embrace queer feminist and decolonial visions for the future, including food sovereignty.