Research Associates

Mauricio is a Ph.D. candidate in Social & Political Thought. His research concerns the “geohistorical turn” in critical theory, green extractivism, and the geopolitics of the green energy transition. This work examines the current state of environmental politics and planetary thinking, centering in this research the concept of the Anthropocene and the history of the geosciences (esp. Earth System science, geology, and mineralogy). Empirically, Mauricio explores the operations of extractive industries in Chile’s Atacama Desert, focusing on the history of the legal frameworks and institutional arrangements that have facilitated successive waves of extractivist expansion in the region. Together, this research aims to shed a light on evolving strategies for the management of the geographical and material constitution of extraction zones in light of global efforts to develop green energy systems and post-extractivist planetary futures.

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

Keywords:  Anthropocene, green extractivism, geoscience, history, energy transition

Please meet Kelston O. Cort, a Ph.D. candidate in the Social & Political Thought Programme at York University. He Holds a  B.Sc. and a M.Sc., specializing  in Developmental Studies and Behavioural Sciences. Broadly speaking, his research interests are situated along the academic terrains of critical spirituality, higher education, labour studies and family studies. More specifically, Cort’s current research focus presents an intersectional understanding of the ways in which the social class location and racial ascription of Black families inaugurate and animate the experiences and educational outcomes of Black working-class undergraduate students who are of Caribbean heritage. Cort is also the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, (OGS).

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: The Caribbean

Keywords: critical spirituality, higher education, labour studies and family studies

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History who is interested in the strategic architecture of U.S. foreign relations with the Anglophone Caribbean during the Cold War. He currently serves as an archival assistant at the CERLAC resource center under the supervision of Dr. Liisa North. Over the Summer of 2022, he is assisting in digitizing archival sources on the history of Black power, Indigenous land rights, and women’s movements in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Anglophone Caribbean, Jamaica

Keywords: radical politics, racial justice, social movements, and decolonization from below

Being originally a dancer in Ecuador myself, my research focuses on concert dance practices in Quito-Ecuador. Since dominant narratives about concert dance are -for the most part- originated, located and modelled through global centers and designs -like Europe and North America-, my work starts as an effort to examine the colonial determinations at play when looking at and writing about the local practices. Within a Eurocentric, historicist framework, Ecuadorian concert dance would necessarily be rendered as a ‘minor’ history. I am interested in how this imbalance of participation in the making of those narratives determines and influences the local dance practices themselves, but also, creates an affective atmosphere that doesn’t allow for autonomy or mobility within the form. In order to deal with that asymmetry, I have endeavored to develop modes of self-narrating the local dance history.

Francisco is currently studying for a Master's degree in Development Studies. His research project will focus on authoritarianism and attacks on press freedom in Mexico. He holds a Master's degree in Comparative Public Policy from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO-Mexico) and two Bachelor's degrees, one in Law and the other in Economics, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). At that University, he taught Public Finance, Socioeconomic Problems of Mexico, and Growth and Development Economics. He was also a full-time Associate Researcher at the UNAM's Institute for Economic Research. He has authored and co-authored books, chapters, and articles on public finance, transparency, accountability, combating corruption, and culture related to economic underdevelopment.

Country(ies) or region(s) of specialization: Latin America, Mexico.

Keywords: Culture and underdevelopment, authoritarianism, corruption, transparency, accountability

Leonardo Martins Cavalcanti Furtado is a Master's student in Geography at York University. He holds a bachelor in International Relations as well as a specialization in Human and Economic Geography. Prior to  coming to Canada, he was an English teacher for 5 years in his homecountry - Brazil.

His research has three aims. First, to explore the social, political and economic geographical conditions that enable and perpetuate the migration of LGBTQ people from Brazil to Canada. Second, to critique the heteronormative power dynamics at play between those countries throughout the immigration process. Finally, to localize and explore queer Brazilian place-making as well as community building and integration in Canadian cities.

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

Keywords: Migration, LGBTQ

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Politics at York University. I am interested in Social Reproduction Theory, Marxist Feminism, Marxist Dependency Theory, Imperialism, and Feminist movements in Latin America. My research examines the International Women’s Strike in Argentina and in Brazil, and the implications for a social reproduction feminist politics in Latin America.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Argentina, Brazil, Latin America

Keywords: Social Reproduction Theory, Marxism, Feminist movements, Imperialism