Monday, January 23, 2012

Graduate Students Present at Meeting of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers

Members of the UT Graduate Association of Geography Students presented at the 31st meeting of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers in Mérida, Mexico. The meeting was held over three days, January 11-13, at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán.

Geography graduate student Lindsey Carte co-organized and co-chaired a session on alternative and participatory methodologies in Latin America along with UT geography professor Rebecca Torres. In the session, Carte presented a paper titled, "Using Participatory Action Research to Understand Central American Women’s Relationships with the State on the Mexico-Guatemala Border." Carte also co-authored another paper with Dr. Torres on community participatory appraisal in migration research. Additional UT geography graduate students presenting in the session included Marina Islas, who gave a paper titled "On a Shoestring and a Hope: Conducting International Graduate Fieldwork," and Pamela Sertzen, who discussed her research with children in Brazil in her paper, "Taking Pictures of Space: Research with Children in a Brazilian Favela."

In a session on exchange and appropriation in migration, Vanessa Martinez presented a paper titled "Transnationalism Revisited: Exploring Migration and Cross-Border Linkages between Chichihualco, Guerrero and Small Town Nebraska." Josh Rudow discussed his research on agricultural trajectories of the Tarahumara in Chihuahua, Mexico in a session on Latin American landscapes. Matt LaFevor presented a paper titled "Estimating the Impact of Explosives on New Spain's Silver Bonanza: A Geographical Interpretation of Archival Data" in a session on historical geographies. UT geography professor Bill Doolittle also attended the meeting, and many UT geography alumni presented papers.