I majored in anthropology as an undergraduate, but swore I would never return to academia and particularly not to such an esoteric and impenetrable field. However, in 2005 I moved to La Paz, Bolivia and shortly thereafter began making documentary films. This work forced me into daily encounters with different ways of experiencing and conceiving of the world, and suddenly my undergraduate training snapped into focus. My films took an increasingly ethnographic turn, best represented by the film, Habilito: Debt for Life, which I co-directed between 2008 and 2010. I decided to explore the possibilities of anthropology and film further, and was accepted to the MPhil in Ethnographic Documentary programme at the University of Manchester’s Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology. At Manchester, I continued to make ethnographic films and expanded my research to include an ethnographic approach to the state. My MPhil research focused on individual experiences of black identity and the formation of nested collective affiliations in a rural town in Bolivia. Since I moved to Bolivia in 2005, I have been fascinated by my encounters with different ways of being and thinking. The anthropological theory that I had access to at that time informed these encounters, but the exposure to a much broader set of theoretical tools during my postgraduate studies has unlocked a range of possibilities for exploring difference in a more complete and complex way. In all of this work, I am committed to an anthropology that draws its theoretical rigour from its engagement with what people do and say in the world.
Articles:
- Forthcoming: “Las multiples vidas de Lorenza Congo: narración e historia en la Amazonia boliviana.” Revista Complutense de Historia de América. (Under Review)
- Forthcoming: 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.
- Forthcoming: “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). (Accepted)
- 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, 11th 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, 3rd Place, Best Documentary
2012 LASA2013 Travel scholarship
2011 One World Media Student Bursary
2005 Hellgate 100k, ultra-marathon