Simón Bolívar Professor 2025: Mara Viveros Vigoya
Mara Viveros Vigoya has a PhD in Anthropology from EHESS (Paris). She is tenured professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, teaching in the Department of Anthropology (1998-2017) and the School of Gender Studies. She is co-founder of the School and has been its director three times.
She has been a visiting professor at the University of Paris’ l' Institut des Hautes Études de l'Amérique Latine (IHEAL) (Simón Bolívar Professorship 2000-2001), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (2010), Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana de México (2013), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina (2016), and The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland (2017). Between September 2014 and July 2015 she completed a postdoctoral fellowship as member at the School of Social Science at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. She was President of the Latin American Studies Association from 2019 to 2020.
Throughout her career as a researcher and lecturer, she has been guided by the theoretical, political, and ethical dimensions of critical feminism. Her research has focussed on the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, and race and ethnicity in the social and cultural dynamics of Latin American societies. Her current interests include Black middle classes in Colombia; anti-racist ideologies, practices, and cultures in Latin America; and the study of men and masculinities from a feminist perspective. As translator into Spanish of Aimé Césaire’s work, she has recently become interested in the unsung contributions of women to the Négritude movement.
She is the author of a number of academic books including De quebradores y Cumplidores (CES/UNAL/Fundación Ford/Profamilia, 2012), Les Couleurs de la masculinité. Expériences intersectionnelles et pratiques de pouvoir en Amérique Latine (La Découverte, 2018) and Breaking the Boundaries of the Colombian Socio-Racial Order: Black Middle Classes through an Intersectional Lens (Lexington, 2024). She is the editor of the book Black Feminism: teoría crítica, violencias y racismo. Conversaciones entre Angela Davis y Gina Dent (UNAL, 2019).
Recent publication:
Book "Una sociología sin fronteras. Exploraciones sobre género y trabajo. Textos reunidos de Luz Gabriela Arango (1991-2018)".
You will find attached the final version of the volume that has already been shared in open access in CLACSO's Virtual Library and Latin American Library at the following link: https://libreria.clacso.org/publicacion.php?p=4094&c=36
"Me honra asumir el rol de Catedrática Simón Bolívar en el Centre of Latin American Studies (CLAS). Esta cátedra, fundada en 1968, ha sido ocupada por 48 intelectuales destacados en el campo de los estudios latinoamericanos. Soy la octava mujer en ocuparla y la primera catedrática afrodescendiente —aunque ya sé que no la única—, reflejando los cambios en la composición de quienes ocupamos esta posición. Estos cambios responden a debates urgentes sobre la diversidad en el cuerpo profesoral de las universidades y la resignificación de la identidad latinoamericana en el ámbito académico. Me entusiasma compartir estos cinco meses con colegas y estudiantes del CLAS, participar en seminarios y conversaciones, y seguir aprendiendo en este espacio vibrante. Gracias a quienes han abierto caminos y a quienes continúan ampliando los horizontes del pensamiento latinoamericano. ¡Nos vemos en el CLAS!"
