ONLINE: Intercultural Education in Mexico: Implications for Natural Resources Conservation

press release: Please join UW Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program for the LACIS Lunchtime Lecture, Tuesdays at noon. The events are free and open to the public.

About the presenter: Francisco J. Rosado-May is an agroecologist. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz and has over 35 years of experience in research, higher education and outreaching in Mexico and other countries including the Americas, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia. Francisco’s research field and academic training focuses on indigenous food systems, agroecology and indigenous education, aiming at developing concepts and methods towards intercultural/biocultural development by understanding the epistemology of indigenous knowledge, with emphasis on the Yucatec Maya, his own ethnicity. His academic experience includes working for the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of New Mexico, College of The Atlantic in Maine, the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, and Universidad de Quintana Roo. In addition, Francisco has been a member of the steering committee for the Agroecology Fund and for the Small Grant Program of the UN Development Program in Mexico for several years. His experience in higher education includes appointment as President of Universidad de Quintana Roo and Founding President of Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo, both in Mexico. Francisco’s academic publications are available at Research Gate and Google Scholar.

About the presentation: In 2004, Mexico opened the first intercultural university in the state of Mexico and started developing a new higher educational model for Indigenous students. In theory, the intercultural model offers a safe space in which different ways (e.g. science and indigenous) of learning, constructing, innovating and transmitting knowledge coexist, creating conditions for synergies to take place, new knowledge, intercultural knowledge emerges from this process. The implications of the intercultural model on wellbeing, development, and natural resources conservation will be discussed.