Visiting Fellows

Alba holds a PhD in Latin American Studies from Newcastle University. Her research explores violence, culture and urban space, with a focus on graffiti and street art. She is currently working on a monograph that builds on her PhD, entitled ‘Reading the Walls in Bogotá: Imaginaries of violence in the urban visual landscape’, which brings together urban ethnography, visual analysis and a reception study of the various forms of graffiti and street art prevalent in the country. In it, she argues for a recognition of the continuum of political and everyday violence, as well as a nuanced appreciation of the cultural politics of street cultures. As a Fellow at ILAS, she will continue to develop the book project while also establishing an international network on urban violence and creativity. The aim is to bring together scholars, artists and activists in various fields, who are interested in different kinds of urban creative practice and how they respond to the question of violence and inequality in diverse Latin American contexts. In particular, she seeks to encourage a reflection on how they represent the multiplicity of political activity and political actors on the scale of everyday life, and to offer a range of opportunities for broad online engagement with these salient questions.

Dr Olga Saavedra Montes de Oca is an associate researcher at the School of Media, Film and Music, University of Sussex. She has a PhD in Creative and Critical Practice, University of Sussex and an MA in Photography and Urban Culture from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Her PhD research: “Opening other Closets: A Visual Ethnography of Gender Roles and Social Change among Transgender People and their Families in Cuba,” offers an insight into family attitudes towards transgender experience in Cuba. In addition to working on developing this thesis into a monograph, her current research project is entitled ‘Accepting the new normal: Cuban families, concealment and queering'. It intends to explore how photography and oral history can be used as combined methodological tools to queering transgender narratives not only in the backdrop of contemporary Cuba, but also more widely in Latin American studies. For the past four years she has taught undergraduate students in Media Practice in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sussex.

Dana Brablec holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. She has a background in Politics from UCL (MSc in Democracy and Comparative Politics) and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (BSc in Political Science). Between 2016 and 2017, Dana was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Latin American Studies, Columbia University. From a socio-political perspective and based on ethnographic research, her doctoral study explored the collective identity re-creation practices developed by Mapuche rural-to-urban migrants within urban Indigenous associations in Santiago de Chile and the role that the state plays in this process. Her work has been published by leading journals such as the Bulletin of Latin American Research, Sociology, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Dana is also a Research Officer in the School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at Bangor University, an Affiliated Researcher in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and a Teaching Associate at the Centre of Latin American Studies also at Cambridge.

Pablo was awarded his PhD in History from the University of Liverpool in December 2017. His ESRC-funded doctoral project, ‘Revolutionary Christianity in Argentina, 1930-1983’, investigated the historical emergence and formation of a broad-based movement of left-wing Christians, and the distinct political responses and forms of resistance to state terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to working on developing this thesis into a monograph, his current research project is entitled ‘Resistance to Argentine State Terror in the UK: Solidarity and Human Rights’. This examines transnational resistance to the last Argentine dictatorship in the UK, primarily in the solidarity and human rights advocacy networks formed by activists, trade unionists and exiles. It also investigates the historical roots of the different political cultures that formed the transnational opposition to the junta.

Schooled as an anthropologist at Goldsmiths College (London) and moulded by 18 years in international development, Into has explored the shifting political and ritual relations between indigenous citizens, transnational mining companies, the state, social movements and landlords in ‘plurinational’ Bolivia. The first results of these explorations are synthesised in his recent book Deference Revisited: Andean Ritual in the Plurinational State (Carolina Academic Press, 2016). Set in a context of violent mining conflicts his ethnographic findings suggest, among other things, the continuity of reciprocal yet asymmetrical relations between indigenous communities and the state. Into is currently engaged in historical and legal research putting into perspective these contemporary impressions. He is studying historical notions of the state and indigenous community in the Andes, and how such local sensitivities have enabled or frustrated indigenous citizenship.

Doctor (PH.D.) and Master in HISTOIRE ET CIVILISATIONS from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris). Currently researcher of the Universidad Autónoma de Chile and director of GEOPAM research network. His works address the geopolitical and cosmographic configuration of America and the global significance of this process in the 16th century, focusing on the role of the Strait of Magellan. History of disasters has also been an object of his studies before.

He is the author or the following books :Temblores de Tierra en el Jardín del Edén. Desastre, memoria e identidad. Chile, siglos XVI-XVIII (2017); Discursos desde la Catástrofe. Prensa, Solidaridad y Urgencia en Chile, 1906-2010 (2018); Historia de un desastre, relatos de una crisis: Concepción, 1751-1765 ( 2018); Historia de un pasaje-mundo. El estrecho de Magallanes en el siglo de su descubrimiento (2018).  

Dr Domenico Giannino is visiting fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies (University of London). Furthermore, he lectures International Law at INSEEC University (London). After completing his BA and MA in Political Science (University of Calabria, Italy), and LLB and LLM (University of Jaén, Spain); he was awarded a PhD in Public Comparative Law by the University of Calabria. His current research agenda is studying the theme of the commons in the Latin-American continent. Specifically, he is focusing on the relationship between human rights and the protection of the environment. In addition to writing in different academic blogs, he is editor and founder of www.incalabria.net.