In brief
Date - 26 October 2023
Venue - Screening Room G.04, 50 George Square
Speakers - Dr Alejandra Colom Bickford (Universidad del Valle de Guatemala) and Dr Alejandro Flores Aguilar (University of Edinburgh)
About the event
This event brings together initiatives and perspectives from collaborators on two Edinburgh-based interdisciplinary research grants: Ixchel, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, and Komon Sajb’ichil for Ixil Cartographies during the Cold War, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Rural and Indigenous communities living in Guatemala’s volcanic arc and southern highlands have an extraordinarily high level of exposure to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and landslides. Their experiences are exacerbated by long histories of landlessness, state-led violence and genocide that today manifest in colonial and discriminatory attitudes. Dr Alejandra Colom, one of the members of the Ixchel team, reflects upon the Ixchel project’s efforts to understand the complexity of living with volcanoes through media methods, and her work for Lab Etnográfico.
She is joined by Dr Alejandro Flores, visual anthropologist and postdoctoral fellow on the Komon Sajb’ichil project. This is an interdisciplinary and collaborative research project with Ixil University and the Ancestral Authorities, modelled upon the lxil practice of Komon Sajb’ichil (New Dawn through Community). Grounded in the theory and method of Komon Sajb’ichil – a communal ritual that begins every spring, when it is time to plant a new field of maize – this collaborative research project seeks to remember Ixil cartographies––the ways they navigated, understood, and represented places––in the midst of insurrection, state terror, exile, and refuge, to prepare for a new future.
We are privileged to welcome them both to University of Edinburgh this autumn – don’t miss the chance to learn of their work, projects and insights.
How to attend
This event is free to attend and open to all. Places can be reserved on Eventbrite.
Book your free ticket on Eventbrite
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