Riccardo Vitale is an Italian anthropologist who describes himself as an “anthropologist of liberation,” a perspective that understands social science as an ethical commitment to building knowledge with communities and for communities.

He earned his PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge with research on the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. His work has focused on human rights, the Colombian armed conflict, social movements, gender relations, sustainable development, climate change adaptation, and Indigenous traditional medicines, particularly yagé medicine, as a tool for peacebuilding, community reconciliation, and the protection of Indigenous territories.
Throughout his career, he has advised international humanitarian and development organizations, including Oxfam America, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the International Crisis Group (ICG), and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Since 2016, he has served as an advisor to the Union of Indigenous Yagé Healers of the Colombian Amazon (UMIYAC), supporting organizational strengthening, the defense of traditional knowledge, and the promotion of protection frameworks for ancestral medicines. He has lived in Colombia for more than two decades.