Artist Elyla and ISS PhD researcher, Ana Victoria Portocarrero will create a dialogue around how and if Global North academia can function as a political tool for international solidarity aiding the ongoing process of decolonization of sexually diverse people in the Global South, specifically in the Mesoamerican territory.
The hegemonic nationalist narrative of mestizaje as a political and cultural identity is a type of reductionist essentialism that often infiltrates global north academic research. This 'gap' ignores the possibility to listen to local diversity creating new ways of challenging colonial violence.
During the event, the speakers will explore how the myth of mestizaje can be contested through artistic research.
The artist Elyla will take us on a journey around how their practice deals with their own process of decolonization at the fringes of academia, working with local communities in a context of political conflict.
About the spearkers
Elyla is a performance artist and activist from Chontales, Nicaragua. Land of the Chontal indigenous people. Their work deals with creating resistance to colonial, imperialist and western ideologies around the construction of identity politics and nation-state cultural narratives, specifically as it relates to mestizaje, queerness and indigenous ancestry.
Ana Victoria Portocarrero is a PhD researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies working on the intersections between climate change policies, food sovereignty and trade, focusing on the Central American Region.
