Professor Chuck Sturtevant

Professor Chuck Sturtevant is a professorial lecturer and political anthropologist at the American University, with research and teaching experience in indigenous studies, Latin American studies, and Latina/o/ studies. He has recently been named to the editorial board of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, and he is currently working on a monograph which analyses the expansion of Bolivia’s Amazonian frontier through the lens of settler colonial theory.

Chuck has a background in documentary filmmaking and NGO work which began when he moved to Bolivia in 2006, work he describes as “forcing me into daily encounters with different ways of experiencing and conceiving of the world”. His films took an increasingly ethnographic turn, including in ‘Habilito: Debt for Life’, which he co-directed between 2008 and 2010.

He went onto complete an MPhil in Ethnographic Documentary at the University of Manchester’s Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology and PhD in anthropology at CISRUL, before beginning his work at the American University. He describes how in all his work, “I am committed to an anthropology that draws its theoretical rigour from its engagement with what people do and say in the world.”

To read more about his work, visit his institutional profile here.

Articles:

• 2024: “The Hill at the End of the World: Cosmopolitics and State Effects in the Bolivian Amazon”, Ethnos, 89:3, 118-218 DOI: 1080/00141844.2021.2007157.
• 2023: “The settler roots of Plurinational Bolivia: state-sponsored indigenous colonization on Bolivia’s Amazonian ‘frontier’”, Settler Colonial Studies,
• https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/FSC68WGIGWTBQYAXJJBI/full?target=10.1080/2201473X.2023.2212951
• 2022: “On choosing sides: ethical anthropology and inter-indigenous conflict in Alto Beni, Bolivia”, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 17:3, 371-389.
• 2018:“Las multiples vidas de Lorenza Congo: narración e historia en la Amazonia boliviana.” Revista Complutense de Historia de América. (Under Review)
• 2018:Book Review: “Beyond Indigeneity: Coca Growing and the emergence of a New Middle Class in Bolivia – by Alessandra Pellegrini Calderón.” Bulletin of Latin American Research.
• 2018:“Missions, Unions and Indigenous Organization in the Bolivian Amazon: Placing the formation of an indigenous organization in its context.” Latin American Research Review. 53(4).
• 2016  Peer-Reviewed Film: “Habilito: Debt for Life.” Finance and Society 2(1).
• 2016  “An introductory framework for ‘Habilito: Debt for Life.’” Finance and Society 2(1).
• 2016  “Claiming belonging, constructing social spaces: Citizenship practices in an Afro-Bolivian town.” Critique of  Anthropology. 37(1).
• 2015 “Not Just Indians and Whites: Rethinking perceptions of social evolution in an area of interethnic contact in lowland Bolivia.” Latin American and  Caribbean Ethnic Studies. 10(2).

Ethnographic Film Credits:

• 2013  What Does it Mean to Belong? Manchester. University of Manchester.  (Director)
• 2011  El Mundo de los Afro-Bolivianos. Santa Cruz de la Sierra, APCOB. (Director).
  •  Eduardo Abaroa Prize, 3rd Place, Best Documentary 2012.
• 2010  Habilito: Debt for Life. (Co-Director).
  • Official Selection, LASA2013 Film Festival, Washington, DC, 2013.
  • Official Selection, 11^th International Festival of Indigenous Cinema, Bogota, 2012.
  • Official Selection, 12th European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference Film Programme, Nanterre, 2012.
  • Official Selection, Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival, Montreal, 2011.
• 2010  La Clara Muestra. Santa Cruz de la Sierra, APCOB. (Director).
• 2010  Trocaire in Bolivia. Maynooth, Trocaire. (Director of Photography).
• 2009  La Feria Jampi: Un Acercamiento Antropológico. La Paz, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas y Arqueológicas, La Paz. (Director).
• 2009  Un Día Cualquiera en Siglo XX. La Paz, Independent. (Director).
• 2006  Sebastiana de los Chipaya. La Paz, Guillermo Ruiz Cinema. (Editor).

Grants, Awards & Other:

2015                Anglo Bolivian Society Dissertation Prize

2014                Aberdeen University Principal’s Excellence Award

2014                Santander Mobility Award

2014                Society for Latin American Studies Overseas Conference Grant

2013                Comparative Statecraft and Constitutional Thought Research Project Bursary

2012                Eduardo Abaroa Prize, 3^rd Place, Best Documentary

2012                LASA2013 Travel scholarship

2011                One World Media Student Bursary

2005                Hellgate 100k, ultra-marathon