Bio:

My interdisciplinary research brings politics of indigeneity and race into inquiries on the production of space, (im)mobilities and embodiment. Through the use of ethnographic and visual methodologies, it clarifies questions surrounding indigenous sovereignties, and emergent forms of urban conviviality, in particular, the way mobility among marginalized populations shapes social and spatial assemblages that challenge subordination. I have an ongoing interest in exploring the possibilities of ethnographic methodologies and perspective over the social, what has pushed me into critical engagements with Social Theory including. Overall, it contributes to understanding governance and development in Argentina and Latin America, in their intersections with processes of urban formation and spatial mobility with indigeneity and racial relations generated in contexts of economic and political subordination.

I have two current research projects. One explores the paradoxical relationship between the Argentinian military’s history of violence against Indigenous sovereignty and the positive experiences of mandatory military service that Toba men report. The other seeks to understand the everyday use of new digital technologies by Toba Indigenous youth in Argentina. This research analyzes the political reconfigurations of both cyber and physical space that new technologies effect.

I conducted ethnographic research among migrant indigenous people in the city of Buenos Aires. My work shows the importance of spatial mobility and the creation of spatial and social networks, that I call subaltern assemblages. The informal connections and relations generated in these assemblages, I argue, are key for confronting socioeconomic marginalization and urban segregation. This work has benefitted from the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Liu Institute for Global Issues, and UBC Graduate Fellowships.

I see research, collaboration, writing, and teaching as a continuum. My past experience on popular education within environmental and indigenous organizations, and in interpretation at the Ethnographic Museum of Buenos Aires, informs my academic interests. I have a background in the theories of space and embodiment, political anthropology, indigenous studies and ethnographic and visual methodologies, and media.

Awards and Fellowships

2014 Margaret Fulton Award. UBC. For outstanding contribution for student development.

2010 Bottom Billion Fellowship. Liu Institute. Follow up Field Research.

2009 IDRC Ecopolis Graduate Research Award. Field research.

2009/2010 Four Year Fellowship. UBC.

2008/09 University Graduate Fellowship – UBC.

2008 Argentinean National Research Council (CONICET). Phd 3 year Fellowship (Declined because of incompatibility with studies abroad)

2007/08 University Graduate Fellowship – University of British Columbia:

Research Areas:

Space and Mobility. Racial, Ethnic and Indigenous Politics. Ethnographic Methodologies. Research in Collaboration. Media Anthropology. Development, Humanitarianism and Violence. Gender and the Body. Urban Studies. Social Theory. Latin America.

Dissertation Title:

Traversing the City: the Making of Indigenous Spatialities Within and Beyond Buenos Aires. Defended: March 2016. Link https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0228632

MA Thesis:

Vivaldi, Ana 2007. If I have a job in the city, I’ll go to the bush on weekends: Place Production Among Toba People in Northern Argentina. MA Thesis. Anthropology Department. University of British Columbia.

1. Refereed contributions

[R] Vivaldi, A (2018) Broken Cellphones and the (Un)making of Indigenous Territorialities beyond Buenos Aires. Simons Working Paper Series in Security and Development. School for International Studies.  SFU, SWP 65: 5-31

[R] Vivaldi, A (2018) Ending up in Buenos Aires: Affective Mobilities of Urban Toba Indigenous People.  Simons Working Paper Series in Security and Development. School for International Studies. SWP 63: 5-31

[R] Vivaldi, A (2016) Caminos a la ciudad, el monte y el Lote. Producción de lugares entre los Tobas (Qom) del Barrio Nam Qom, Formosa. Corpus. 6(1): 1- 106

[R] Vivaldi, A (2013) Fuera del Chaco: Movilidad, afecto y genero en las migraciones Tobas a Buenos Aires [Out of the Chaco: Gendered Mobility, gender and affect in Toba’s migrations to Buenos Aires] In: Tola, Florencia (Ed.). Gran Chaco: Ontologias, poder, afectividad. IWGIA: 231-260

[R] Vivaldi, A (2011) Stuck on a Muddy Road: Frictions of Mobility Amongst Urban Toba in Northern Argentina. Identities. 18(6): 599–619.

[R] Vivaldi, A (2011) El monte en la ciudad:(des) localizando identidades en un barrio toba.“[The bush in the city: delocalizing identities in a Toba neighbourhood] In: Gordillo, Gastón y Hirsch, Silvia (Ed.). Disputas indígenas e identidades en conflicto en Argentina: Historias de invisibilización y reemergencia. Crujia: 101-121

2. Other refereed contributions

[R]Vivaldi, A (2018) Broken Cellphones and the (Un)making of Indigenous Territorialities beyond Buenos Aires. Paper presented at the Symposium of New Indigenous Media, Victoria, BC, June 12^th.

[R]Vivaldi, A (2018) Cultural work and Asserting Indigeneity in the city of Buenos Aires. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, London, UK, June 2^nd

[R]Vivaldi, A (2018) Argentina’s Military Service and the Making of Racialized Indigeneities. Paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association, Barcelona, Spain, May 23^th.

[R]Vivaldi, A, Holroyd, H. and Kemple, T (2016) Messy Collaborations: Creating Multiple Partnerships in a Field school at Home. Paper presented Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting. Vancouver, BC, March 31^st.

[R]Vivaldi, A, Palacios, M. G., Avellana, A., & Dante, P. (2010) Reflexiones en Torno a las Nuevas Teconologías [Reflections on a “New Technologies.” A workshop with Toba youth in Buenos Aires]. Conference Proceedings. Minority Languages  Association. 3 (4): 1-9.

3. Non-refereed contributions

Vivaldi, A and Gomez, M (2018) “We want us alive” Argentina’s Feminisms and Women’s Movements in the early 21st Century. Irish Journal of Anthropology. 20(1) (Online).

Rodriguez, M and Vivaldi, A (2017) Current Mapuche Struggles over land and State Violence in Argentina’s Patagonia. Culture Newsletter of the Canadian Anthropology Society. 11 (2). (Online).

Vivaldi, A (2016) Reconocimientos nominales y violencias coloniales. [Nominal Recognitions and Colonial Violences.] In: Suarez, V  and Tola, F (Ed) El teatro de las Crueldades Chaqueñas. [The Chaco Theatre of Cruelities] Buenos Aires. IWGIA Rumbo Sur/UBA: 176-180

Vivaldi, A and Francia, T (2013) La espacialidad de mi barrio. [My neighborhood’s spatiality.] In: Francia, T and Tola, T (Ed) Reflexiones Dislocadas. IWGIA Rumbo Sur/UBA: 49-58

Collaborative Writing

2016 Suarez and Tola (Ed) El teatro de las Crueldades Chaqueñas. Buenos Aires. IWGIA Rumbo Sur/UBA. “Nominal recognitions and colonial violences” (In collaboration with Toba Indigenous People)

2013 Francia and Tola (Ed) Reflexiones Dislocadas. Buenos Aires. IWGIA Rumbo Sur/UBA. Contribution to section “An indigenous neighbourhood” (In collaboration with Toba Indigenous People)

2017-2018 Simons Research Fellow, School for International Studies, SFU

Academia-https://ubc.academia.edu/AnaVivaldiSessional Faculty