Dr Octavio Barrientos is a lecturer at the UNSW Centre for Social Impact.

Octavio holds a PhD in Management from Monash University with a focus on community-centred tourism. He was also a Research Impact Fellow and teaching associate at the Business School, Monash University.

Octavio has a multidisciplinary background including a Bachelor's in Human Rights and Peace Management, and a Master’s in Global Development Studies.

His research focuses on tourism-induced social movements, and how communities respond to perceived threats to their cultural and natural environments. Other academic interests include Political Economy and Geopolitics, with a focus on global dynamics and how they shape behaviour and identities at the local level.

Before becoming an academic, Octavio worked in hospitality and was a coffee entrepreneur for almost ten years.

Octavio is enthusiastic about teaching and believes that social change begins with education, and universities have a large role to play. He considers that, given the diversity of students’ backgrounds, classrooms are social laboratories – microcosms that allow learning from multiple perspectives, while developing and testing innovative ideas.