In an effort to decentralize our academic knowledge and discussion on urban spaces, the Urban Ethnography Group has launched its Urban Ethnography from the Global South reading group and speaker series, dedicated to the study and analysis of ethnographic research produced on the Global South and by academics from the Global South. The initiative has two main goals: 1) to create a reading group where we can collectively learn and discuss the work of scholars working on Global South urban issues, and 2) to host a speaker series in which students and professors currently doing research on the urban Global South can present their work and receive feedback, and in which the authors of our readings or professors at U of T can present their studies and respond to questions from participants.

The reading group will take place every three weeks, while the speaker series will take place monthly on a different day than the reading group. People are welcome to come to a single event or both, suggest readings, and present their work. The reading list will be collectively created by participants, who are also invited to present the readings and conduct discussions. The idea is to create a community where students, professors and other people interested in the urban Global South can feel comfortable sharing ideas and learning.

We will start our reading group by discussing the book Flammable. Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown by Javier Auyero and Deborah Swistun (2009). The first meeting date will be Thursday, March 7, from 5 to 7 pm in the Ethnography lab (University of Toronto Anthropology Building, Room 330, 19 Russel Street, Toronto). If interested, please register HERE so we can provide you with the readings and information on our group. Alternatively, you may send an email to ethnography.lab@utoronto.ca and request to join the group.

Andrea Roman Alfaro (Convener)
Andrea Roman Alfaro is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Toronto and a Vanier Scholar. She holds a master’s degree in Sociology with a specialization in social development from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Government from Skidmore College, in New York. She has worked as a researcher in different research centers in Peru. She has been a course instructor of sociology in two Peruvian universities and a teaching assistant on courses related to the sociology of crime and law and Indigenous studies. She has also been the executive coordinator of Grupo Sofia, a network of Peruvian women social science scholars promoting gender equality in academia. She is currently a teaching and research assistant in the Department of Sociology at U of T. She is also the sociology and international steward for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3902 (CUPE 3902). Andrea’s research focuses on the dynamics of violence and gender in Peru.