PRESENTATION SEMINAR
“Research on Gender and Sexuality in Latin America at UBC”
Student Presentation Seminar
Friday March 19th, 2010 – Liu Institute, 3rd floor Boardroom
3:00 – 3:45 pm
“Gendered and Sexualized Spectacles of Neoliberalism, Militarism and Nationalism in Post-dictatorship Chile”
Presenter: Manuela Valle, Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies, Liu Institute Scholar
Discussant: Dr. Mary Bryson, Dept. of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education
This paper is the research proposal for the author’s doctoral degree in Women’s and Gender Studies. The presenter raises questions and seeks to get specific feedback on how to work in an interdisciplinary way, using both textual and visual methodologies, and using the concept of “spectacle” as an interpretative frame.
3:45 – 4:30pm
“Tensions in Feminisms’ Publics: The Politics of Sex Tourism in Natal, Brazil”
Presenter: Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Liu Institute Scholar
Discussant: Dr. Juanita Sundberg, Department of Geography
This paper explores the emergence of a new public domain: sex tourism in Natal, Northeast of Brazil. It first traces the larger national and international context that gave rise to the constitution of sex tourism as a particularly salient issue in Brazil. Then it turns to the specific context of Natal and critically examines the campaigns against sex tourism by the state, local NGOs, and associations of business owners and residents. The author proposes that in the context of Natal, the campaigns against sex tourism tend to produce an essentialist discourse about “pervert foreigners” and “helpless Brazilian women”. Speaking in the name of women, the social sector in Natal claims to represent women’s interests when fighting sex tourism. However, it is argued that the politics of sex tourism in Natal are crisscrossed by a multiplicity of political interests that reflect the socio-spatial tensions of the city and country, and are divided by inequalities of race, class, gender, nationality, age, and sexuality.
4:30 – 4:35 pm – BREAK
4:35 – 5:20 pm
“Dead or Alive? Forest Development and International Climate Change Strategy in Guyana”
Presenter: Dawn Hoogeveen, Ph.D. Student, Department of Geography, Liu Institute Scholar
Discussant: Dr. Mary Bryson, Dept. of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education
This paper is about climate change and development in Guyana. As opposed to examining climate and development in theoretical opposition, it is argued that current development policies bring climate and development together and reproduce historic colonialist development patterns. Current development strategies use rhetorical devices that call on a need for forest conservation and carbon storage. The author draws on the example of the Low Carbon Development Strategy currently being developed in Guyana and suggests carbon storage programs can negate community needs and without adequate “consultation”, have the potential to unsettle communities, especially within Guyana’s interior.
5:20 – 6:05 pm
“Delights, Challenges and Expectations: Developing a Tool Box for Safety and Wellbeing during Ethnographic Research”
Presenter: Oralia Gómez, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Liu Institute Scholar
Discussant: Dr. Juanita Sundberg, Dept. of Geography
The author’s doctoral research focuses on the collective organizing efforts of sex workers in the metropolitan area of Mexico City. In April 2010, the presenter will begin conducting ethnographic research on this subject over the period of 10+ months. This paper raises some of the authors’ field research-related hopes, fears and expectations with the purpose of developing a box of useful tools to ensure personal safety and wellbeing when conducting ethnographic research about and among a highly stigmatized population (i.e. sex workers) in a highly stigmatized place (i.e. Mexico City). The presenter seeks to receive practical suggestions, concrete recommendations, and thought-provoking ideas on potential ways to conduct research that is simultaneously feminist, anti-racist, ethical, and safe for both research participants and researcher.