Fellows

Cristina is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood in the Faculty of Education at York University.  She is also the Pedagogista for the Ontario Centre of Excellence in Early Years and Child Care. Prior to joining York University Cristina was immersed in developing innovative and situated early childhood pedagogies at Capilano University Children centre. The Center is known in the Canadian Early Childhood context as a space for radical reconceptualization of early childhood practices and for research done at the intersection between pedagogy and the arts.

Her research interest addresses the ethical question of living well with others within pedagogical gatherings. She engages with this question by problematizing issues of subjectivity in relation to prescribed practices in education, and by unsettling pedagogies that are based in human supremacy and instrumental-managerial logics. She is interested in the intersection between pedagogy and the arts as an enabling space to rethink the project of the human. In her work as a pedagogista She is interested in the participatory and relational aspects of curriculum making, particularly, when attending to pedagogical relations as something more than child centered. She is interested in conceptualizations that engage with the life of curriculum from tangible and intangible formations.

She is currently a principal investigator in the SSHRC Insight Development Grant Developing Educational Practices and Methodologies to Enhance Young Children’s Voices: Mitigating Climate Change Injustice in Andean Communities. She is also  co-investigator in the SSHRC Insight Grant Trasforming Waste Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education, and in the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant Exploring Climate Change Pedagogies with Children. The SSHRC projects have a research site in Ecuador that explores what alternative pedagogies might emerged when paying attention on how ancestral relations come to matter in facing 21^st century problemmatics.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Ecuador, Andean Region

Keywords: Pedagogy and pedagogical thought, childhood, curriculum theory, ethics for the anthropocene, pedagogical trajectories, pedagogy and the arts

Mario Di Paolantonio is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education. He has published widely in the area of post-dictatorship commemoration in the Southern Cone and in the field of philosophy of education. He is currently working as a co-investigator with Professor Silvia Grinberg (Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina) on a project exploring precarity, youth, and schooling in abject zones of Buenos Aires, funded by Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Argentina. He was also recently a co-investigator (along with Professor Vikki Bell, Goldsmiths) in an Economic & Social Research Council (UK) funded research project entitled: “Re-emerging Pasts: Forums for Truth-telling in Contemporary Argentina and Chile.” His SSHRC funded project studied commemorative pedagogical and artistic practices in post-dictatorship Spain and Argentina.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Argentina, Spain

Keywords: Precarity, youth, schooling

Alan Durston’s research is concerned with the cultural and social history of the Andes, currently focusing on the first half of the 20th century. He has published on the changing uses of Quechua as a language of written communication since the 16th century, and is starting a new project on highland migrant communities in 20th-century Lima.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Peru

Keywords: Andean history, linguistics, Quechua

Her research focuses on the relationship of literature and music in Latin America, music as a subtext in women’s writing, and contemporary innovations in Spanish American literature.

Maria L. Figueredo is Associate Professor at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at York University, where she teaches courses in Spanish language and Latin American literature. She was a York-Massey Fellow from 2008-2009, and since then has been a Senior Fellow at Massey College. She served as President of Ontario Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (2003-2005) and as Delegate of Region 1 (Eastern Canada and New England) of the Modern Language Association (2006-2009). At York University she served as Coordinator of the Spanish and Portuguese Studies Section from 2009-2011, and has held the position of Director of Undergraduate Programs-Languages and Literatures (2011-2013). 

Dr. Figueredo’s research in the area of literature, literary culture and teaching has been published in books, specialized journals and cultural magazines. Her book, Poetry and Popular Song: Their Convergence in the Twentieth Century. Uruguay, 1960-1985 was published in Uruguay by Linardi y Risso in 2005; it studied the sociocultural process of poetry that is set to music at particular times in the history of Latin America. 

This trained musician and academic is considered a Canadian specialist in the relationships between literature and music in their specific socio-political contexts, work that she initiated in 1994. She has continued to publish and present her research in national and international fora in this main area of specialization in the relationship of literature and music in various Latin American case studies, as well as about music as a subtext in women’s writing, and about contemporary Spanish American literature.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Interest: Latin America, Uruguay

Keywords: Latin America, Literature, Music

My research interests are articulated around two poles: Immigration, Multiculturalism and Citizenship (multicultural cities and identities; politics of difference in the city; neoliberalisation of immigration policy; social justice, media representations of immigration and multiculturalism, and North American border politics) and Urban and Environmental Politics (planning, design and urbanism; exurban growth and environmental conservation; political ecology of landscapes; and environmental justice).

My research examines the oppositional struggles and alternative narratives or claims voiced by marginalized people as a form of resistance and expressions of citizenships. Both my teaching and research are anchored in a critical analysis of the conventional and marginalizing processes of urban development. My interest in studying the social and political economy of the built environment is particularly focused on the spatial representations of economic domination in relation to the changing forms of social organizations and the implications for equity, justice and democratic participation in multicultural societies. My study of the multicultural and urban discourses and practices is based on a theoretical and methodological approach considering the incongruities between ideologies, policies and everyday practices.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Interest: Mexico

Keywords: Immigration, multiculturalism, citizenship

Transnational Migration and Engagement; Citizenship, Non-citizenship and Precarious Migratory Status; Precarious Work; Diaspora; Immigrant Politics and Incorporation; Latin American Migrations.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Interest: Latin America and Canada

Keywords: Precarious work and precarious status. Immigrants and work. Immigration and transnational lives.

Miguel Gonzalez (PhD, York University) is an adjunct faculty in the International Development Studies program at York University, Toronto, Canada. In recent years Miguel has taught both in the undergraduate and graduate programs in International Development at York University. His current research relates to two broad themes and projects: First, indigenous self-governance and territorial autonomous regimes in Latin America. On this question he has published extensively (see for instance: http://www.fygeditores.com/fgetnicidadynacion.htm) and he co-edited a themed issue for a specialized academic journal in the field on indigenous studies (http://www.alternative.ac.nz). Miguel is currently co-editing a thematic issue of the Latin America and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Journal (LACES) on the topic of Indigenous Autonomies in Latin America (tentative date of publication is 2014). Recent publications include a book chapter on Central American Indigenous and Afro-descendants social movements which he has co-authored with leading scholars in the field (http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781857436747/). Miguel’s second area of interest is the governance of small-scale fisheries (SSF) in the global south, with a particular geographical concentration in the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast. On this question he has just completed a paper that revolves around the health-related impacts of commercial lobster diving in the Miskitu Coast. Finally, Miguel is a researcher associated with the Global Partnership for Small-Scale Fisheries Research (http://toobigtoignore.net) and with the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) at York University.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Interest: Latin America, Nicaragua Caribbean Coast

Keywords: Indigenous, self governance, fisheries, global south

Social Theory; Slavery and Black Experience in the Americas.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Interest: Latin America and the Caribbean

Keywords: Slavery, race, social theory, culture, politics