I am an instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology teaching in the areas of: Politics of Race and Indigeneity, Gender and transfeminism, Social Theory and Multimodal Ethnographic Methods. My research is based at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester, where I have explored cultural production challenges shifting forms of racial inequality in Argentina, at the project  “Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America.” Employing engaged critical ethnography as my research method, since 2020, I have fostered three significant collaborations. First, I participated in an innovative Afro-Indigenous research exchange, partnering with Afro-Latin American and Mapuche theatre directors. This collaboration resulted in the creation of two compelling plays that explore speculative encounters between Mapuche and Afro subalternities.

The second is a series of research-creation initiatives with the Collective Identidad Marrón. This involved co-authoring a book with invitations to anti racist interventions in art; co-curating an art exhibition featuring marrón artists, and producing a performance in an art museum with young queer performers who self-identify as Marrón. The concept of “Marrón” represents a novel identity that emphasizes indigenous, peasant, and migrant ancestry, with an acknowledgment of uncertain genealogy and a shared experience of racialization within urban contexts. Finally I worked with urban Toba-Qom hip-hop artists, to promote the existing work and support new recordings that reflect their experiences as Indigenous individuals born in Buenos Aires. This collaboration builds upon my long-term involvement with Toba-Qom organizations since the early 2000s.

My research brings the politics of Indigeneity and race into inquiries into space, the city and mobilities, through a focus on embodiment, affect and gender. In the past, I have traced how urban indigenous people in Buenos Aires confront spatial segregation and racialization by indigenizing the city, and through mobilities linking them to their territories and other urban communities. In my first post doctoral research I have explored the formations of race and masculinity in the Argentine military, tracing the experience of Indigenous men who have served in the army and in the Falkland war. While my scholarship is shaped in conversations with researchers working on Indigeneity and race, spatial politics, gender, and  Latin American studies, my work emerges out of long-term relationships, established in the early 2000s, with Indigenous people and movements in Argentina, now including Marrón and  Afro Latin-American organizations as well. The outputs of my work include an art exhibition, collaborative writing with Indigenous, Marrón and Afro intellectuals and activists, publications in English- and Spanish-language academic journals, short articles on current affairs, community exhibits. I have written on Indigenous politics in Argentina, the regulation of Indigenous mobilities and the affective imputations to it, racialization of shantytowns and Indigenous bodies in Buenos Aires. I have translated articles from Indigenous, activists and feminist writers and organizations for disseminating in English.

I received a Licenciatura in Anthropology from the University of Buenos Aires in 2005 and completed my PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2016. In 2017-2019, I was a Research and Visiting Fellow at Simon Fraser University School for International Studies. From 2014 to the present, I teach as an instructor at the University of British Columbia.

PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH CREATION

Books

Vivaldi, Ana. Urban Indigenous Assemblages: Qom Mobilities and the Remaking of White Buenos Aires. Manuscript under contract. University of Vanderbilt Press. Forthcoming 2023.

Edited volumes

Iñigo Carrera, Valeria; Kropff, Laura and Vivaldi, Ana in press, Movilidades obligadas. El desplazamiento a las ciudades como efecto del genocidio indígena. San Carlo de Bariloche: Universidad de Rio Negro University Press

Calfinao, Daniel and Vivaldi Ana, in press La movilidad en escena: Teatro Documental como herramienta para la (auto)reconstrucción de subjetividades en los desplazamientos campo-ciudad. In: Iñigo Carrera, Valeria; Kropff, Laura and Vivaldi, Ana Movilidades obligadas. El desplazamiento a las ciudades como efecto del genocidio indígena. San Carlo de Bariloche: Universidad de Rio Negro University Press

Iñigo Carrera, Valeria; Kropff, Laura and Vivaldi, Ana, Introducción: Movilidades obligadas. El desplazamiento a las ciudades como efecto del genocidio ndígena. . In: Iñigo Carrera, Valeria; Kropff, Laura and Vivaldi, Ana Movilidades obligadas. El desplazamiento a las ciudades como efecto del genocidio indígena. San Carlo de Bariloche: Universidad de Rio Negro University Press

Journal Articles

In press with Ignacio Aguiló (in press). “Race and the Shantytown in a Race-Less Country: Negros Villeros, Whiteness and Urban Space in Argentina.” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. Last revisions accepted.

2019. “Indigeneidades urbanas: formaciones espacializadas de raza y experiencia Toba (Qom) en Buenos Aires.” [Urban Indigeneities: Spatialized Racial Formations and the experience of Toba (Qom) in Buenos Aires.] Quid 16 Journal of Urban Studies – “Gino Germani” Institute of Sociology (UBA) 11: 151-174.

2019. “Indigenous Men in the Argentine Military in the 19th and 20th Century”. In: Oxford Encyclopaedia of Latin American History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-21.

2018. “Broken Cellphones and the (Un)making of Indigenous Territorialities beyond Buenos Aires.” Simons Working Paper Series in Security and Development, no. 65. School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University.

2018. “Ending up in Buenos Aires: Affective Mobilities of Urban Toba Indigenous People.”  Simons Working Paper Series in Security and Development, no. 63. School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University.

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

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

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

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.

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. Buenos Aires: IWGIA, 231-260.

2011. “Stuck on a Muddy Road: Frictions of Mobility Amongst Urban Toba in Northern Argentina”. Identities 18(6): 599–619.

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 and Hirsch, Silvia (eds.). Disputas indígenas e identidades en conflicto en Argentina: Historias de invisibilización y reemergencia. Buenos Aires: Crujia, 101-121.

Curatorship and Research Creation

Exhibit Co-Curator

2022 Wade, P., Sa, L., Aguiló, I., Vivaldi, A., Dias, J.P. and Angulo, C.C. (2022) Curatorship and Curatorial text for  Digital Art Exhibition Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America. University of Manchester Library Digital Exhibitions.

2022 Alvarado, F., Carissimo, A., Lopez, A. co curation Vivaldi, A. “Hijxs Semilla” Autorepresentación, fantasía y deseos marrones. In Digital Exhibitions Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America. University of Manchester Library Digital Exhibitions. 

As researcher- producer

2022. Álvarez, M. 2022, performance “Como dos gotas de Agua” 2022. Director Alejandra Egido – Miriam Álvarez. Co-Producers Cañuqueo, L. and Vivaldi, A. Staged at Contact Theatre Manchester April 23rd.

2022. Egido, A., video-performance “Fuego Amigo” 2022. Director Alejandra Egido. Cast: Egido, Álvarez. Cinematography José Lopez. Co-Producers Cañuqueo, L. and Vivaldi, A.

2022. Álvarez, M. 2022, video-performance “Las Hierbas”. Director Miriam Álvarez. Cast: Álvarez, Cañuqueo. Cinematography Natalia Cano. Co-Producers Cañuqueo, L. and Vivaldi, A.

2022. Torrez Agüero, S. Rugeles, F video 2021, “Eskina Qom”. Research, interview, rough-cut, production Vivaldi, A.

2022. Gudiño, D., Ruiz, D. Lopez, R. Mamani, A. video-performance ”Traspasar las Puertas de Cristal.” Producer: Vivaldi, A.

2022. Alvarado, F., Caríssimo, A., Lopez A. and Vivaldi, A. Identidad Marrón – Hijxs Semilla. Digital Art Exhibition Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America. University of Manchester Library Digital Exhibitions.

Researcher, producer and host

Cañuqueo and Vivaldi 2023 Podcast Cultures of Anti-racism in Latin America. Digital Art Exhibition Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America. University of Manchester Library Digital Exhibitions.

Academic Blog, Reports and non-academic Books.

2023 Vivaldi A., Alvarado F, and Lopez A, Transformational Knowldege in The Dialogue Group. Praxis Dialogues : Academic Engagements with Knowledge in the World, Leslie A. Robertson, Ed. The University of British Columbia: Centre for Community-Engaged Research and Department of Anthropology. Online cIRcle, UBC: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85694

2022 Identidad Marrón  Marrones Escriben. Vivaldi, A, and Cossio, P. editors. Buenos Aires: Zócalo. 

2021 Vivaldi, A, and Cossio, P. Report: Malonear los Museos. Audience analysis on the exhibition Que necesitan aprender los museos. Museo Presented to Nacional Museum Palais de Glace. Cultures of Anti-racism in Latin America Blog. University of Manchester.

2021 Vivaldi, A, and Cossio, P. Las Argentina blanca y sus contradicciones urgentes:  una conversación con intelectuales Afro, Indígenas y Marrones. Nota. El Diario Ar. https://www.eldiarioar.com/sociedad/mito-argentina-blanca-contradicciones-urgentes_129_8144506.html

2021 Vivaldi, A, and Cossio, P. Deconstructing Argentine whiteness: a conversation with Afro, Indigenous and “Marrón” intellectuals. Cultures of Anti-racism in Latin America Blog.  (Translation by Peter Wade). University of Manchester.

2020 Vivaldi, A. The microsociology of racism in Buenos Aires in the cinematographic gaze of Guido Simonetti, Fabián Benitez and “Actores de la Villa”. Cultures of Anti-racism in Latin America Blog. University of Manchester.

2020 Vivaldi, A and Egido, A. with Teatro en Sepia. Más allá de la visibilización: Teatro en Sepia, vidas Afrodescendientes y antirracismo en Argentina. Cultures of Anti-racism in Latin America Blog. University of Manchester.

Under review and in preparation

Kropff, Laura; Vivaldi, Ana and Iñigo Carreras, Valeria  (eds). Movilidades obligadas. Movilidad a las ciudades y genocidio indígena. Universidad of Rio Negro Press. Under review

Kropff, Laura; Vivaldi, Ana and Iñigo Carreras, Valeria. “Introducción”. In: Movilidades obligadas. Movilidad a las ciudades y genocidio indígena. Universidad of Rio Negro Press. Under review

Vivaldi, Ana and Calfinao Daniel. “Movilidades en escena. Teatro documental y recuperación de las memorias del genocidio indígena”. In: Movilidades obligadas. Movilidad a las ciudades y genocidio indígena. Universidad of Rio Negro Press. Under review

Vivaldi, Ana. “Cultural Work and Toba-Qom Hip hop: Indigenizing the city of Buenos Aires through the performance of Toba-Qom music”. In: (Un)making the City. Art practice, Political Aesthetics and Urban Space in Indigenous Latin America. Olivia Casagrande and Valentina Bonifacio (eds), special issue of Urban Anthropology. Under review.

Vivaldi, Ana. “(Dis)connecting Devices: Shifting Toba territorialities and the introduction of mobile phones in an urban indigenous barrio”.  Revise and resubmit, American Ethnologist. 

Vivaldi, Ana; Alvarez, Miriam; Egido, Alejandra; Cañuqueo, Lorena. “Más allá del reconocimiento: Prácticas teatrales y la reconstrucción de vidas Afrolatinoamericanas y Mapuche en Argentina como prácticas anti racistas.” In: Decolonial and anti-racist art in Latin America. Peter Wade (ed.). In preparation

Vivaldi, Ana and Cossio Pablo. “Malonear los Museos. Un estudio de público en el Palais de Glace sobre la exhibición ‘¿Qué necesitan aprender los museos?’ curada por Identidad Marrón y Poetas Villeres”. In preparation. 

Awards and Fellowships

2017-2018: Simons Research Fellow. School for International Studies. SFU.

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

2011: Bottom Billion Fellowship. Liu Institute. Follow up Field Research.

2010: International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Ecopolis Graduate Research Award. Field research. [CAN $ 20,000]

2009-2012: Four-Year Fellowship. UBC.

2008: Argentine Research Council (CONICET). 3-year Fellowship (Declined because of incompatibility)