DR. LUIS FERNANDO ANGOSTO FERRÁNDEZ
Lecturer
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+61 2 9351 2557 |
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PhD – Queen’s University of Belfast
MPhil – University College Cork
BA (Licenciatura) – Universidad de Granada
After graduating from the University of Granada (Spain) in Political Science and holding an Erasmus studentship at University College Cork, I completed an MPhil in Folklore and Ethnology at this very Irish University. For my MPhil I conducted fieldwork in Jerez de la Frontera, while analysing the role of the flamenco tradition in contemporary processes of identity boundary demarcation between local and foreign populations. I then completed my PhD in Social Anthropology at Queen’s University of Belfast, with a thesis that, articulating scholarly enquiry around the concepts of ethnicity, citizenship and indigenous political organisation, examined the relations between the Venezuelan state and indigenous peoples in the context of the Bolivarian political process. For my doctoral research I conducted a year and a half of fieldwork in Venezuela, principally based in a Pemon community of the Gran Sabana. After doctoral graduation I returned to Venezuela and worked for five years at the Bolivarian University in Ciudad Bol'var, while also conducting further research in the country.
Research
My current research analyses, from a comparative perspective, the relationships between indigenous peoples and the state in Latin America, and particularly in countries where state reform is adopting socialist leanings (including Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua). In this research there is a concern with studying, from and anthropological perspective, individual and collective political agency in power struggles that are structured through discourses of ethnicity (particularly around the concept of ‘indigeneity’) and race. Beyond scholarly enquiry, this analysis is also undertaken as the grounding of thought and discussion that, in applied terms, envisages ways of strengthening civic forms of cohabitation and democratic organisation in the contemporary polis.
Research interests
- Indigenous peoples and the state in Latin America (social movements, statecraft)
- Ethnicity and race (notions, constructions and uses of ethnic and racial identities)
- Multiculturalism and plurinationality (politics of recognition, politics of redistribution and citizenship)
- Political agency and organisation (individual and group stratagems, social change, electoral processes)
- Ethnographic and participatory research methods
Selected publications
Journal articles
- (in press): ‘Participación y representación indígena en los procesos electorales venezolanos’ [‘Indigenous participation and representation in Venezuelan electoral processes’]. América Latina Hoy. [ISSN 1130-2887]
- (2011): ‘La competencia por la representación indígena en las elecciones venezolanas (2004-2010)’ [The competition for indigenous representation in Venezuelan elections (2004-2010)]. Cuestiones Políticas, Vol. 27, No. 46: 13-54.
- (2010): ‘Pueblos indígenas, multiculturalismo y la nueva geometría del poder en Venezuela’ [‘Indigenous peoples, multiculturalism and the new geometry of power in Venezuela’]. Cuadernos del Cendes, nº 73: 97-132.
- (2009): ‘Donde lo pemón se torna indígena: perspectivas etnográficas para el estudio de las políticas étnicas y la conciencia colectiva’ [‘Where Pemon goes indigenous: ethnographic perspectives for the study of ethnic politics and collective consciousness’]. Antropológica, Tomo LIII, n. 111112: 13-34.
- (2009): ‘Bolívar, espejo de la revolución: los comicios regionales (2008) en Guayana’. [‘Bolívar, mirror of the revolution: regional elections (2008) in Guayana’]. Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales, vol. 15, n. 3: 13-35.
- (2008): ‘Pueblos indígenas, guaicaipurismo y socialismo del siglo XXI en Venezuela’ [‘Indigenous peoples, guaicaipurismo and socialism of the twenty-first century in Venezuela]. Antropológica, Tomo LII, n. 110: 9-33.
- (2002): ‘On the relationship between anthropology and literature, with a brief examination of Mario Vargas Llosa’s El Hablador’. Béascna, 1: 101-116.
- (2001): ‘Geographical imaginaries and symbols of cultural identity. Representations of Spain, Flamenco images and the creation of geographies of difference”. Chimera, UCC Geographical Journal, 16: 86-91.
Book chapters
- (2007): ‘Translating territories: mapping codes of power among the Pemon people, Venezuela’. In S. Kelly and D. Johnston (eds.) Betwixt and Between: place and cultural translation. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- (2007): ‘Demarcación de tierras y el concepto de territorio en el pueblo Pemon: efectos de un proceso de textualización’. In Lino Meneses Pacheco, Gladys Gordones Rojas y Jacqueline Clarac (eds.) Lecturas Antropológicas de Venezuela. Mérida (Venezuela): Editorial Venezolana, pp. 453-460.