Who we are

Tina Hilgers, Ph.D.

Dr. Tina Hilgers is Associate Professor of Political Science at Concordia University. Her research is in the field of comparative politics at the intersection of sociology, anthropology and geography.

Jean François Mayer, Ph.D.

Dr. Jean François Mayer is Associate Professor of Political Science at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). His research deals with social movements, labour politics, and democratic processes in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on Brazil and Mexico.

Kregg Hetherington, Ph.D.

Dr. Kregg Hetherington is the Concordia University Research Chair in Environmental Ethnography. His research specializes in experimental ethnographic practices and the politics of environment, infrastructure and the bureaucratic state.

Nora Jaffary, Ph.D.

Dr. Nora Jaffary’s research focuses on the social and gendered history of colonial and nineteenth-century Mexico. Her book, Reproduction and Its Discontents in Mexico: Childbirth and Contraception, 1750-1905, which examines the persistence of pre-Columbian midwifery, monstrous births, infanticide, abortion and the emergence of Mexican obstetrics, was published in the fall of 2016 with UNC-Chapel Hill Press.

James Freeman, Ph.D.

Dr. James Freeman is an Assistant Professor (LTA) in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment. His research focuses on popular culture, public space and political economy in urban Latin America, particularly Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Managua, Nicaragua. For the last several years Dr. Freeman’s research has focused on the consequences of mega-events such as the World Cup and the Olympics for the urban poor in Rio de Janeiro, with a particular emphasis on the Police Pacification Unit program (UPP).

Otacílio de Oliveira, Ph.D.

Otacilio de Oliveira Jr holds a PhD in Social Psychology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais / Brazil. His PhD research investigated the relationships between cultural production, literary writing, and activism in the poor suburbs of large Brazilian cities. In his master's degree, he researched the process of migration of young peasants to Brazilian metropolises.

Rubens Lima Moraes

PhD. Candidate Rubens Lima Moraes

Rubens Lima Moraes is a Ph.D candidate in Political Science at Concordia University. He holds an M.A. in Public Policy and Public Administration at Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC – Florianópolis, Brazil). His doctoral dissertation is about the process through which knowledge is produced within participatory institutions governing natural resources in Latin America. His focus is on water governance and management in two Brazilian cities.

Liam Dunbar

Liam Dunbar is a Ph.D candidate in Political Science at Concordia University, having entered the program in 2018. He holds a Baccalaureate in International Development and Globalization, as well as a Masters in Globalization and International Development, from the University of Ottawa. His Master’s Thesis explored the role of the Salvadoran diaspora in Canada in the Salvadoran mining justice movement. For his Ph.D.

Cássia Reis Donato

Cássia Reis Donato is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. Cássia has a Master’s Degree in Social Psychology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her Master’s thesis analyzes the processes of political participation of young Afro-Brazilian women against gender and racial inequalities. She has actively participated in social movements in Brazil and has experience in public policy management.

Othón A. Leon

Othon A. Leon is a Ph.D. student in Political Science (War Studies) at Concordia University. He holds an MBA at ITAM (Mexico City), an M.Sc. in International Studies at University of Montreal, and an M.Sc. in Strategy at HEC Montreal. His doctoral dissertation analyses the ways in which the region located South of the Rio Bravo represents a puzzle in terms of the relative absence of inter-state conflict, between its states and territories

Luisa Seidl

Luisa Seidl holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science with a double minor in Human Rights and French Language from Concordia University, where she will pursue her Master's in Political Science. Under the Center for Research on Resistance, Informality and Violence (CERIV), her research focuses on domestic workers in Brazil and their everyday forms of resistance to violence. She has participated in several academic panels surrounding inequality and discrimination in Latin American countries, focusing on LGBTQ+ rights and culture.

Kathy Meilleur AISK

Audrey-Anne Doyle

Program Officer at Canadian Heritage

Annele Bernal

Mexican Government

Gustavo Henrique Andrade

BA

Natanael J. Vargas

MA

Carlos Zapata

University of Ottawa

Cecilia Eraso

BA

Laura Sofía Rivera Sánchez

University of Toronto

Henrique Araújo Araugusuku

University of São Paulo

Maria Fernanda Aguilar Lara

University of São Paulo