Symbolic Politics of Language

I will be presenting a research paper at the 2010 Annual American Academy of Religion Conference in Atlanta, GA, which discusses the issue of authenticity and authorship in indigenous self-representation to Western audiences.
I use academic sources on the Amazonian indigenous worldview as well as other case studies of struggles for indigenous rights in the Amazon to inform this current context. I also rely on anthropologist Laura R. Graham's research on indigenous self-representation and anthropologist Alcida Rita Ramos' work on indigenism in Brazil.

Gender Issues in the Madeira River Dam Project

I presented a paper on the issues of violence against women at the 9th Annual Women’s Studies Student Conference, “Cleaning Up the Down Economy: Women, Gender, and the Global Economy,” on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010, held at Florida International University. I briefly outline various forms of violence against women in relation to the UN Millennium Development Goals and posit that the inability to meet the latter disqualifies the view that the Madeira river dam project is sustainable development that represents progress and generates social capital.

Publication forthcoming in the Making Waves journal.