Skip to main content
School of Geography

QMLAN - Events

 

 

Home  Who we are  Projects  PhD/Postdocs  Links

Forthcoming Events

 Thursday November 12th: 1-2.30pm

Reflecting on the Chilean Constitution Referendum

with Julieta Suárez-Cao, Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser and Javier Sajuria

Details TBC

 

Thursday November 19th 2-3pm

Talk in Spanish by Juan Rivera

CONTIENDAS Y APROPIACIONES EN EL TRATAMIENTO RITUAL DE ANIMALES. UNA MIRADA EXTRA-ANDINA DE LA HERRANZA.

 


Juan Rivera is a Research Fellow in the Polish Institute of Advanced Studies, Polska Akademia Nauk. His research examines cosmologies among indigenous groups of the Andes, particularly Quechua-speaking peoples of the Peruvian highlands. Among his publications is the book La vaquerita y su canto: Una antropología de las emociones (2016); the articles “Beyond the “dismal imagery”: Amerindian abdication, repulsion, and ritual opacity in extractivist South America” (HAU, 2019), “Warriors and caimans surrounding the Andes” (Social Anthropology, 2017) and “Recent methodological approaches in ethnographies of human and non-human Amerindian collectives” (Reviews in Anthropology, 2019); and the edited volumes Non-humans in Amerindian South America (2018) and Indigenous life projects and extractivism (coedited with Cecilie Ødegaard, 2019). He also coproduced a video installation and film series with Peter Snowdon entitled The owners of the land: Culture and the spectre of mining in the Andes (2013).4. Short abstract:  Reflexionaremos acerca de las posibilidades de repensar el pluriverso ritual de los Andes a partir de conceptos y modelos teóricos producidos desde la etnografía de un área circunvecina: la Amazonía. Nuestro objetivo es mostrar cómo estos modelos pueden iluminar aspectos hasta ahora opacados de aquellos mundos. 

 

En su conjunto, las reflexiones aquí expuestas parten de nuestras propias observaciones de los ritos ganaderos del valle de Chancay (sierra de Lima, Perú), nuestro ritual de referencia. Es, pues, desde este punto de partida concreto que abordamos la etnografía existente sobre estos ritos en los Andes centrales y sureños. Nuestro intento se compone de tres partes. La primera de ellas ofrece una definición mínima de nuestro ritual de referencia, destaca una de sus particularidades más saltantes e incluye una breve descripción de sus secuencias. En la segunda parte, sugerimos la necesidad de una complementación. Proponemos que es necesario complementar la atención usualmente dada a la ofrenda y a la reverencia —por ejemplo, en los análisis de intercambios recíprocos entre humanos y cerros (sean éstos llamados apus, wamanis o earth beings)— con un interés similar en la apropiación y la contienda (tal como esta se desarrolla, a modo de ejemplo, en nuestro ritual de referencia). Esta sugerencia se inspira no solo, como ya dijimos, en nuestras investigaciones de campo sino también en el modelo interpretativo de la depredación familiarizante, tal como este ha sido desarrollado por Carlos Fausto (2012 [2001]) a partir de sus estudios entre los parakanã (Pará, Brasil). Finalmente, en la última parte, hacemos explícito que esta propuesta de complementación implica (aunque no sea nuestra intención desarrollarla aquí) una crítica de algunos modelos interpretativos que, limitándose a una mirada (intra-andina) quizá demasiado atenta a la ofrenda y la reverencia, han omitido u opacado aspectos como la apropiación y la contienda de los ritos ganaderos en los Andes. En suma, lo que nos proponemos aquí es sólo subrayar, partiendo de nuestra propia exposición etnográfica en una región andina concreta, una cierta oportunidad analítica propiciada por una apertura comparativa a modelos interpretativos exógenos a los Andes. 

 

Friday December 4th 2020 1-2pm

Assortative Matching or Exclusionary Hiring? The Impact of Firm Policies on Racial Wage Differences in Brazi

Dr Francois GerardLecturer (Assistant Professor) School of Economics and Finance Queen Mary, University of London

Past Events

 

 

21st October 2020: 3-4pm

Speaker: Dr Simone Vegliò, Department of Geograph, King’s College London

TITLE: The Urban Enigma: Time, Autonomy, and Postcolonial Transformations in Latin America

ABSTRACT

The book explores how Latin America indicated an autonomous form of postcolonialism that was marked by the production of multiple conceptualisations of time. The analysis particularly focuses on iconic urban transformations in capital cities such as Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Brasilia, diachronically, and investigates each case’s specific representations of past, present, and future. By exploring these three episodes of architectural transformation, the book shows how Latin America’s postcolonialism involved specific spatial dynamics that were inherently working over global socio-political geographies resulting from the legacy of a “long” colonial imagination. The text is divided into two parts. The first part discusses some theoretical questions concerning the very conceptualization of Latin American space and the importance of exploring a genealogy of its urban geographies; this part also advances the hypothesis to conceive the city as a formidable archive through which it is possible to unpack historical socio-political configurations. The second part analyses the themes proposed through the discussion of the “materiality” of specific historical examples; the section delves into urban transformations in the aforementioned capital cities and focuses on how iconic material forms are able to encapsulate the main socio-political features defining each country’s postcolonial project.

 

 

SHORT BIO

 

Dr Simone Vegliò is based in the Department of Geography at King’s College London. His work analyzes socio-spatial transformations of the urban environment in relation to global economic processes as well as to transformations at the level of the nation state, both historically and at present. He has also worked on the figures of José Martí and Antonio Gramsci

Wednesday 22nd January 2-3pm “Unexpected passers-by: transgender and disability activism in Buenos Aires around access to public space”

Geography - City Centre Seminar Room, Bancroft 2.07

 

Urban public space in Buenos Aires has been contested by a variety of social groups throughout its recent history. This presentation focuses on two social movements in the city which have struggled to assert their members' right to exist in and move through public space in their everyday lives. On the one hand, transgender and travesti activism initially emerged in the late 1980's in order to contest misdemeanour codes which made “cross-dressing” in public spaces a criminal offence. Meanwhile, disability rights organizations have challenged urban planning codes and practices which produce public space that is inaccessible to people with mobility or vision impairments.   We are interested in asking what both of these movements can tell us about disputes around the regulation of public space. Who and what is public space understood to be for? What are different bodies enabled and allowed to do in and through public space? And what can struggles for the right to the city look like in relation to everyday life? 

 

Francisco Fernández Romero is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and holds a fellowship from Argentina's National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) 

 

 

January 28th January 2-3pm “Working with Latin America: career prospects”

Scape 2.01

Interested in a career relating to Latin America? Come and hear from a journalist, NGO works and academics about their experiences of working in the region and how they made Latin America a core part of their career. Speakers include: Pablo Navarrete (Journalist and documentary film maker), Ana Caistor Arendar (Oxfam), Kyla Sankey (recent PhD graduate from QMUL), George Middleton Managing Director Brennan and Partners (a financial consultancy firm specialising in Latin America)



Thursday 6th February 1-2pm “Democracy and political polarization in Brazil”

João Paulo Araujo, University of Brasilia

Bancroft Building 3.27

 

The current Brazilian scenario brings about numerous different perspectives towards its democratic status. In it’s third decade, there was no other period in recent history that suggests such a profound debate on the principles of democracy in the country. After turmoil in the beginning of the 1990s, what seemed to be stable and fruitful resulted in a societal clash ruining the apparent consensus amongst the social groups. After the eruption of protests all over the country in June 2013 radical discourses emerged, sperarheading rage against corruption, the state and mainly, the party that was in power since 2002. Since then, polarisation took over the political realm, traditional and social media, the interpersonal relations and the government. The presentation will thus focus on the understanding of the Brazilian reality and engage in debate on the principles of democracy. On the one hand, the active participation of the social agents can be considered as an essential part of the democratic ambience. On the other hand, the quality of the debate and extreme polarisation took Brazilians to a critical stance where the friend/enemy approach provide claims of the social groups for authoritarian regimes to solve the consensus issue. 

João Paulo Araujo has a BA in International Relations (2006) and Law (2015)) at Centro Universitário de Brasília and a Masters degree in International Relations at University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom (2008). Currently enrolled in the Law Postgraduate Program at the University of Brasilia - Brasilia, Brazil focusing in Constitutions and Democracy (PhD). Lecturer at Centro Universitário de Brasília and Instituto de Ensino Superior de Brasilia in the Law and International Relations Departments.





Wednesday 19th February Luis Fabio (UFSP) 6-8pm - "Power and Impotence. A history of South America under progressivism (1998-2016)"

Bancroft: 1.02.6

 

In Power and Impotence, Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos delves into the history of South America to understand the rise and fall of the so-called 'progressive governments'. In the wake of mobilizations against neoliberalism in the 1990s, most countries elected presidents identified with change. However, less than twenty years after Hugo Chávez's victory, this trend seems to be reversed. The times of Lula are now Bolsonaro's. What happened? Luis addresses each South American country, including those who did not elect progressives, in addition to Cuba. The national focus is enriched by an analysis of regional integration attempts, providing a detailed and necessary recent history of the subcontinent.

 

 

Thursday March 26th 1-2pm Rowan Lubbock (QMUL)

Bancroft 1.15

 

Title:  'Spaces of Agrarian Struggle: The ALBA-TCP and the Politics of Food Sovereignty in Venezuela"

 

Abstract

 

Since its creation in 2004, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) has represented a radical alternative to the dominant patterns of regionalism and social development.  Covering a range of areas of cooperation - including diplomacy, energy, medicine, education, and agriculture, ALBA has asserted its rejection of market logic and placed a renewed emphasis on progressive government policy in alliance with grassroots power. However, while ALBA has been relatively successful with regards to its social policies, particularly the expansion of medical and educational services to the popular sectors, its approach to agrarian development has encountered a litany of obstacles and tensions. The central contradiction lies in the sharp divergence between ALBA’s radical rhetoric with regards to the transition towards a more participatory-democratic ‘social economy’, and the entrenched presence of top-down decision making and bureaucratic state power. More specifically, the concrete manifestation of ALBA's food policies all reside within the territory of Venezuela. This picture presents a fundamental puzzle: why has ALBA's regional policy been "nationalised" under the Venezuelan state? Read through a critical Marxian lens, and drawing upon 12 months of field research, the paper will unpack the contradictory dynamics and social struggles that have marked the life span of ALBA's food policy, and offer a prognosis on the longevity of this post-hegemonic regional space. 

 

Bio:   

Rowan Lubbock is Lecturer in International Relations and Development at the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London. His research centres on the intersections between International Relations, Latin American politics and Critical Agrarian Studies. As well as previously published in the Journal of International Relations and Development, New Political Economy, and Journal of Agrarian Change, Rowan is currently writing a book on the politics of food sovereignty within Venezuela and the Latin American regional institution of the ALBA-TCP, to be published by University of Georgia Press (Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation series).

 

If you have an idea for an event centred on Latin America and/or the Caribbean, please get in touch with us.

 

 

  • 30 April 2019, 1-2pm Dr Marcia Vera Espinoza (QMUL) "Losing and claiming citizenship: Palestinian and Colombian refugees negotiating membership and access in Chile and Brazil"
  • 19 June 2019, 4-6pm School of Geography Dr Marion Werner (Buffalo), "Global Displacements: The Making of Uneven Development in the Caribbean".
  • 28 June 2019, 5-7pm School of Geography Professor Gianpaolo Baiocchi (New York University) and Professor Jenny Pearce (LSE), “Reclaiming Democracy: Popular Sovereignty and Participation in the 21st Century”.
  •  QMLAN Ryan [PDF 30,257KB]

    October 2nd 2019, 12.30-2pm: Dr Holly Ryan (QMUL): “Dull” Meets “Boring”? Exploring Twinning as an Expression of Everyday IR" , GO Jones LG1, Mile End Road, E1 4NS

     

    October 17th 6-8pm “Science and Universities under Right wing administration in Latin America: cutbacks, attacks and resistance” Daniela Perrotta (UBA/CONICET) and Emanuel Porcelli (UBA) , Bancroft Building 2.41, QMUL, Mile End Road, E1 4NS Further info (no booking required): s.halvorsen@qmul.ac.uk. Organised by action for Argentina & supported by Queen mary latin American network

    24th of October, 6-7.30pm, Michael Mason, Yvonne Carter Building, 58 Turner Street, Whitechapel.Dr Liliana Lizarazo Rodriguez:

    From anthropocentrism to ecocentrism and the conflict between the right to a healthy environment and the rights of nature.

     

    November 1st 2019, 3-5pm: Roundtable "Reflecting on the Argentine 2019 Elections" with:

    Mariano Féliz (UNLP/CONICET): “Argentina’s transitional crisis turns political” ; Juan Grigera (KCL): “Crisis and the foreign debt in the conjuncture of elections” ;  Sam Halvorsen (QMUL): “The City of Buenos Aires: continuities and ruptures in the 2019 elections”; Marcela López Levy (Birkbeck:) “Peronist resurgence or anti-Peronist disarray? Speaking ‘reality' in the imagined country of the middle class.”  ; Carla Torres (York): “New Social Movements and the neoliberal turn: Meeting the demands of the poor?” ; Luciana Zorzoli (SOAS/CONICET): “Macri’s years and the labour movement, what is new?”. Chair: Javier Sajuria (QMUL)

    Graduate Centre Room 222 (City Seminar Room), Mile End Road, E1 4NS

     

    5th November 2019

    ‘ELECTIONS IN BOLIVIA: WHAT CHANGES?’

    from 6pm to 8pm

    Queen Mary University of London (Mile End Campus), David Sizer LT, Ground Floor, Bancroft Building

     

    -       Andrew Canessa (University of Essex);

    -       Enrique Castañón (SOAS University of London);

    -       Lorenza Fontana (University of Newcastle, TBC);

    -       Angus McNelly (Queen Mary University of London);

    -       Massimo Modonesi (UNAM, Mexico)

    Organised by Angus McNelly (QMUL, a.mcnelly@qmul.ac.uk

QMLAN event in collaboration with the Peruvian Embassy

On Tuesday, 10th of December QMLAN, in collaboration with the Peruvian Embassy, hosted a public event on “Ayahuasca Tourism and Amazonian Healing Traditions” presented by Dr Pablo Favaron. Dr Favaron holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Montreal and is the author of several books and articles. The public audience listened and engaged in a fruitful discussion on the dangerous aspects of Ayahuasca tourism and the disentanglement of Ayahuasca tourism from Amazonian healing traditions. Following, the introduction to local healing traditions and knowledge construction, Dr Favaron presented a fascinating account of how there is no need for patients to take Ayahuasca.  He asked the public the question of why so many people from Western European and North American countries are looking for personal treatment outside there context. After signing of his book, an engaging discussion continued over a reception sponsored by the Peruvian Embassy.

 

 

Wednesday 11th December

Institute of Population Health Sciences Seminar

Wednesday 11th December, 12.15-1.15 PM

Michael Mason Lecture Theatre, Yvonne Carter Building

Speaker: Doreen Montag, QMUL

Title: An eco-bio-socio-political approach to anaemia in Peru

 

12th December, 1-2pm

Agroecological practices as territorial development: 
an analytical schema from Brazilian case studies

1-2pm, December 12th 2019
Graduate Centre Room 603, Queen Mary University of London

Mile End Road, E1 4NS
Les Levidow, Open University, UK, 
Davis Sansolo, and Monica Schiavinatto, 
Instituto de Políticas Públicas e Relações Internacionais (IPPRI), Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), São Paolo
 
Agroecological practices have been widely promoted as an alternative to the hegemonic agro-food system, yet they also can help to ‘green’ the system.  To strengthen a transformative agroecology, Latin American activists have promoted the concept desenvolvimento territorial rural (DTR or rural territorial development), which itself has different versions.  The dominant version advocates broad multi-actor coalitions to strengthen DTR, yet this obscures rival territorial agendas for gaining resources.  An antagonistic version instead analyses how capital accumulation drives societal conflicts, contingently resulting in DTR trajectories.  This relates to agrarian political economy perspectives on how the capital accumulation process has increasingly subsumed small-scale farm labour, but also how agroecological alternatives seek to minimise or bypass this subsumption.   Drawing on those perspectives, here an analytical schema helps identify how agroecological practices are appropriated for diverse trajectories of territorial development, illustrated by Brazilian case studies and comparisons among them.   The schema can strengthen a ‘strategic reading of territory’ by identifying multi-actor opportunities for a transformative agroecology.

 

 

Since 2018 we have organised many events with a diverse range of speakers. Here are a few images:

Maristella Svampa (UNLP, Argentina) in April 2018

Maristella Svampa (UNLP, Argentina) in April 2018.

Bernardo Mançano Fernandes (UNESP, Brazil) in June 2018

Bernardo Mançano Fernandes (UNESP, Brazil) in June 2018.

Rogerio Haesbaert (UFF, Brazil) in July 2018

Rogerio Haesbaert (UFF, Brazil) in July 2018.

Matias Landau (UBA, Argentina) in October 2018

Matias Landau (UBA, Argentina) in October 2018.

Professor James Dunkerley (QMUL) for our March 2019 launch event “"Latin American Studies during the Cold War"

Professor James Dunkerley (QMUL) for our March 2019 launch event "Latin American Studies during the Cold War"

Back to top