Cara Flores is a transdisciplinary researcher, artist and facilitator who likes to create spaces for critical conversations and creativity. She is a PhD candidate researching a decolonial approach to mapping practices. This is a joint project at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development between the Urban Futures Studio and Environmental Sciences research group. Through this Cara looks into how decolonial theory informs alternate, counter, and more creative approaches to making maps. This is to form an understanding on how mapping can be used as a methodology and facilitation tool to co-create more sustainable futures, with a focus on islands.

She gives lectures and designs workshops that incorporate queer and decolonial theory, and research on different counter-cartographic approaches, artistic exhibits, and activist movements. Within her teaching and research she is also interested in how different creative approaches such as zine-making, collaging, and printmaking, can be used to connect critical theory and design practices.

Trained in the fine arts as a printmaker, she also studied sociology with a focus on migration and globalization. Before coming to the Netherlands for her PhD, Cara received a Fulbright Fellowship to obtain a Masters in Creative Industries and Design in Taiwan, where she researched Overseas Filipino Migrant workers placemaking. She has lived and worked in the Philippines, the United States, Taiwan, and the Netherlands.