CERLAC Presents: Selected Topics from CERLAC’s Resource Centre: An Interdisciplinary Conversation with PhD Candidates in Politics: Chris Little and Samira Lavei
CERLAC Presents:
Selected Topics from CERLAC’s Resource Centre:
An Interdisciplinary Conversation with PhD Candidates in Politics:
Chris Little and Samira Lavei
Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Location: Kaneff Tower 857
Zoom Registration:
https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsdOqpqDIiHNy6GS-M8ILocV8z4_2ERZa3
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Chris Little: Lineages of resistance and the contemporary Guatemalan land question in the LAWG archive
This presentation will explore the contemporary land question in Guatemala through documents detailing lineages of campesino resistance in the country as found in the Latin American Working Group (LAWG) archive at the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean. The focus will be on documents that help to contextualize the contemporary situation facing Guatemalan campesinos and Indigenous peoples by showing the long history of their struggles. The presentation will also reflect on how the archives are contributing to a doctoral research project, with a view to encouraging others to explore them to contextualize their own research projects.
Chris Little is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics at York University. His doctoral dissertation research looks at transnational processes of agrarian change as related to agricultural labour migration between Guatemala and Canada. The work is grounded in labour-centred field research with migrant farmworkers, so as to understand their perspectives on agriculture and their role within it, both in Canada and back home in Guatemala.
Samira Lavei: Exploring the topic of gender and guerrilla movements with an inside look at the Colombian FARC
This presentation will cover the historical analysis of the violence in Colombia that has taken place leading up to the formation of the FARC and the significant events that took place during their presence.
I found that the “Alternativa” archives at the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean have been especially helpful in gaining insight as to the key events that have unfolded in Colombia during the 1967-68 period. Such articles helped me analyze the presence of women during these key events and compare the shifting gender-based norms. During this presentation, I will be introducing the documents and literature that are currently helping me contextualize the situation facing women during the Colombian conflict and the long history of the conflict and the key events that led to the discourses surrounding peace. Like Chris, I too will aim to showcase how valuable these archives are in contributing to any doctoral research project pertaining to Latin America and the Caribbean, while also encouraging others to explore and realize the value this literature can have towards their own research projects.
Samira Lavei is a 6th year PhD Candidate in Political Science, specializing in Women & Politics and International Relations. Her research focuses on the experiences of women in armed conflict in Colombia. She conducted fieldwork across Colombia interviewing victims, organizations and high-profile politicians to understand the conflict from a gender-based perspective. During her time on the field, she understood the importance of personalizing the fieldwork experience. She realized that the fieldwork experience is made valuable once she situated every aspect of her life into it (her faith, her athletic experience and her ethnic identity). She realized that by doing this, she was able to create a lasting relationship and trusting bond with her interviewees. She is excited to put the experiences for her interviewees in writing alongside utilizing the literature at the archive center to advance her research.
