Research Associates

Sean K Isaacs is a PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University. Their research interests are Marxism, financialization, social reproduction theory, urban political economy, and social movements. They are examining the effects of financialization on the urban environment in Brazil and how this has transformed everyday working-class subjectivity, specifically amongst informal and social reproductive workers.

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

Keywords: Urbanization, social movements, housing, financialization, Marxism, social reproduction

Luisa Isidro is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Her proposed ethnographic
research aims to analyze the alternative forms of security developed by women who undertake
these duties in the face of the experiences of death, abuse, and displacement that they and their
families and communities have suffered during both the armed conflict and the post-agreement
era. Drawing on research on feminist geopolitics and grassroots practices that exercise protection
for people on the ground (or alter-geopolitics), she aims to explore how Indigenous women’s
relationships with land provide alternative security during territorial disputes, and create
connections within, through, and beyond the state to ensure dignity, justice, and buen vivir.

Likewise, this research aims to examine how these women meet, seek, generate, and implement
non-violent collective resistance to address everyday violence while weaving connections with
similar women’s organizations. Her research puts diversity of perspectives, gender, race, language,
Indigenous knowledge, and regional representation at the heart of the Social Sciences by analyzing
concepts that have been primarily men-driven and west-led like ‘security’ and ‘violence’ and
introducing new concepts such as nonviolent practices and solidarity.

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

Keywords: Feminist Geopolitics, Non-violence practices, Alter-geopolitics, Buen Vivir,
Indigenous Women, Human Security, Violence and Gender-Based Violence, Militarization,
Solidarity and Civil Resistance

Trinity graduated with distinction from OCAD University, earning a BDes (Hons) in Advertising. While at OCAD, Trinity was interested in Marketing and UX design. Her passion was driven by technology’s potential to improve design accessibility and user experience. 

Trinity’s current research delves into exploring various frameworks aimed at strengthening the intergenerational transfer of Indigenous Guatemalan textile designs and techniques.

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

Keywords: Design, Technology,  Culture, Documentation, Cultural preservation, Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer.

I research the political economy of migration, agriculture and uneven development, with a focus on how dispossession, extractivism and inequality in the Global South shape labour migration to the North. I am interested in the experience of workers within the structural constraints of the world economy, how agency is exercised amidst these forces, and the social reproduction of labour power.

My PhD thesis research focuses on agrarian labour migration flows between Guatemala and Ontario, Canada, and their relationship to transnational processes of agricultural transformation during the era of neoliberal capitalism. I am seeking to understand how circuits of capital and circuits of labour migration interact and reinforce one another through a hemispheric extractive agricultural economy, and to better understand the experience of migrant workers whose labour power is essential to the maintenance of these circuits.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Guatemala, Canada

Keywords: agriculture, migration, labour migration, agrarian question, agribusiness, land distribution, political economy, development, circuits of capital, dispossession, social reproduction, uneven development

I am an International PhD candidate in Humanities Department. It took me awhile to figure out my new research area, since I had a career before coming to Canada as a PhD in philosophy (Mickiewicz University), specializing in history of 20th German philosophy, working as a lecturer and translator in Poland. Eventually, my dissertation’s preliminary title is: “The Cultural Translation of Latin American Digital Art” and its main research question is “In which conceptual and material ways does Latin American digital art engage in working with digitality that is saturated by Western (neo)colonial modernity and capitalism in terms of cultural translation?” This topic came naturally out of my research on digital media, digital humanities, cultural translation and digital art as well as from a collaborative research/art project called “Haptic/Visual Identities” I have been involved in for three years with Cristian Villavicencio, an Ecuadorian PhD student from University of Basque Country, Spain. One of the main issues connected to the research question of cultural translation is whether working with digitality promotes or inhibits Latin American digital art’s use of minor art practices, thus performing alternative or subversive forms of creativity and promoting alternate forms of globalization (such as decoloniality – Mignolo, worlding, or planetarity – Spivak). The main premise here is that digitality, and the technology connected to it, carry within a certain cultural dictionary.
My other projects include: digital humanities project “Walter Benjamin Digital” (connected to translation theory, media theory and digital humanities) and ongoing pedagogical project “Deterritorializing Culture”.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Latin American; Colombia, Peru, Ecuador

Keywords: Visual Identities, digital media, digital humanities, digital arts

Roshane studies cultural diplomacy in the Global South geared towards decent work and economic growth. He has a particular interest in the policy infrastructures and programming that support cultural and creative industry South-South cooperation among UNESCO Creative Cities in Colombia and Jamaica.

Roshane was an instructor in International Business Management at Canadian College. Prior, he served as a teaching assistant at Simon Fraser University in politics, interactive arts and technology, communication, and publishing.

As the Advocate and Policy Advisor at the Graduate Student Society at Simon Fraser University, he was part of a multi-student union team lobbying the British Columbia Legislature on post-secondary tuition prices, student housing, and provisions for mental health services.

Roshane received a Master of Publishing with Distinction from Simon Fraser University. His research focused on knowledge ecosystems and learning organisations. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in International Relations from the University of the West Indies, Mona.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Jamaica and Colombia

Keywords:  Cultural and Creative Industries; Creative Cities; Cultural Policy; South-South cooperation; Triangular cooperation; Beneficial and Sustainable Tourism; Transcultural media flows; Transmedia Storytelling; Music; Dance; Publishing; SDG 8; SDG 9; SDG 17

Alex Moldovan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Politics at York University. His research is focused on the intersection of social movements and insecurity, in particular the role of communes in Venezuela’s multifaceted crisis. By using ethnography and archival methods, Alex’s research aims to shed light on the tactics and strategies social movements implement to alleviate the pressures of food scarcity, political violence, and economic collapse. Central to this understanding is a critical investigation of self-defence, self-government, and self-management practices by grass-roots organizations.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Venezuela, Colombia/ Latin America

Keywords: insecurity, social movements, ethnography, food security