Tinker-Nave Summer Field Research Panel #2

media release: Please join UW Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program. The events are free and open to the public.

Room 206 Ingraham Hall - 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706. Register for Zoom option.

Presentation #1: “Chile’s Water Market and the Politics of Drought in the Coquimbo Region” presented by Alec Armon.

About the presentation: The Coquimbo Region of Chile is undergoing a historic “mega-drought” against a policy backdrop often referred to as the most marketized water code in the world, under which water rights are bought and sold like commodities. Both the region’s main population center and its export-oriented agriculture industry face growing water demands while the primary freshwater reservoirs near total depletion. My thesis research therefore examines how water shortages have impacted coastal communities and campesinos through two case studies involving a forthcoming desalination plant in the seaside city of Coquimbo and local water management organizations in the fertile agricultural interior respectively. Both examples shed light on the consequences of water scarcity for democratic decision making amidst the intensifying climate crisis.

About the presenter: Alec is a second-year Master’s student in the Department of Geography and focuses the subfields of environmental justice, political ecology, and economic geography. His research interests center broadly on the enduring influence of US policy and institutions in Latin America, analyzed through themes like environmental governance, land tenure, and policy knowledge production. He graduated in 2018 from UW-Madison with bachelor’s degrees in International Studies and Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies. Before entering graduate school, Alec worked at a Saint Paul, MN district council coordinating community development projects and conducting community engagement on City policy.

Presentation #2: “Education Under Attack: History, evolution, and crisis in the higher education system in Peru” presented by Fidel Revilla Arizaca.

About the presentation: About the presentation: The university in Peru has become one of the most valuable commodities during the last decades, their number has mushroomed reaching the amount of 143 in 2014, originating a university reform that closed a bunch of those institutions that have not achieved the minimum standards of quality and that continuously scam to the young Peruvians. Nevertheless, the new political parties that ruled the country, started to disambled that reform and pervert and commodity higher education again. This research focuses on the history of the university and its changes, especially during the last decades, trying to analyze how these changes affected higher education in Peru, especially in the 90s when the neoliberal project massified access to the university, but in the detriment of education quality.

About the presenter: Historian dedicated to studying the development and crisis of higher education in Peru through the LACIS program. He received his BA in History in 2015, and an MA in Superior Education in 2021, both from the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (UNSA). Likewise, he has been dedicated to teaching for almost seven years, teaching in schools, pre-college centers and in the Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohman. He is the recipient of several academic awards, including those resulting through his work advising students. Previously, he traveled throughout Latin America as an exchange student and participated in many academic events. Through UNSA, he was awarded funding to study mining communities, and develop research projects.

Presentation #3: presented by Jacob Sorrells.