Be(com)ing Indigenous in the Time of Extraction: (Re)articulating Identities in
the Context of Peru’s Ley de Consulta Previa.
Project Leader(s): Lexy Seedhouse
Staff: Supervisors: Prof. Nina Laurie and Prof. Rosaleen Howard
My doctoral project explores the contextual situation; and historical, political,
economic and cultural significances within which contemporary extractive projects
operate in Peru. Based on two years of fieldwork in Lima, Cuzco and the province
of Espinar, I argue that mining and the extractive industries have deeply affected
national and regional development in Peru. As such, historical and contemporary
analyses of Peruvian indigenous identity formation cannot be understood
separately from the extractive industries. Using the recent context of the Ley de
Consulta Previa (Law of Prior Consultation) as an analytical frame, I employ a
mixed qualitative methodology, including multi-scalar ethnography to interrogate
the multiple ways that indigenous identities are being understood, embodied and
contested in Peru today.
Research interests:
Latin America; language and cultural identity; Quechua language; gender and
development; social movements; neoliberalism; the relationships between identity
formation and development policy; indigenous development; the extractive
industries.
Awards:
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) fully-funded PhD (4.5 years),
Newcastle University.
S.W. Woolridge Memorial Award (King’s College London)
Languages: English, Spanish, Quechua, French
Teaching: I have taught (either lecturing or leading seminars) on the following
modules at Newcastle University:
GEO8103- Politics of Development and Social Struggle in Latin America (MA)
GEO2103- Globalization, Culture and Development
GEO2047- Political Geography
GEO1010- Interconnected World
Qualifications:
Teaching and Demonstrating in Higher Education Certificate, Newcastle University,
2010.
MSc Environment and Development (Distinction), King’s College London, 2010.
Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA), 2009.
BA Spanish and Latin American Studies and English Literature, Newcastle
University, 2008.
Research groups: Geographies of Social Change; CLACS; Power, Space and
Politics