Ange La Furcia

Ange La Furcia

Research

Sea Antics: The Politics of Beauty and Transwomen in the Colombian Western Caribbean 

Supervisors: Pedro Mendes Loureiro and Rachell Sanchez-Rivera

My project aims to analyze the beauty salons sector in the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina in Colombia. The islands are inhabited by raizales, an English-speaking population, descendants of enslaved Africans, and also migrants from mainland Colombia, Syria and Lebanon. I explore care, emotional and body labours in order to interpret the multiple skills, abilities and meanings that hairdressers, stylists, image consultants, peinadoras, barbers and manicurists incorporate into the performance of their jobs. Hairdressing salons express and construct social inequality. Nevertheless, they are also spaces where the criteria of beauty, self-esteem and dignity are redefined to take care of oneself and others and to overcome social contempt, racism and discrimination. 

Biography 

I completed a BA first-class honours with distinction in Sociology at Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia (2009-2014) and a Master’s degree with distinction in Gender Studies, Politics and Sexuality at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences EHESS, Paris, France (2017-2019). 

I am also a graduate of École Normale Supérieure de Paris, Rue d’Ulm, with a major in Social Sciences and a minor in “Languages and Cultures of the Arab and Muslim world” (2016-2020). 

Other activities: member of the QTI Coalition of Colour in Cambridge, U.K, a network for queer, trans and intersex black, indigenous and people of colour. Co-founder of Transbloc Collective, a network for trans researchers in France and member of the Francophone Association for Caribbean Studies (AFDEC). 

Selected publications

  • Posso, Jeanny Lucero y La Furcia, Ange (2018) “Pelo acrílico, cuero y tacón: diferencias, estéticas y estilistas trans en Cali”. En Género, trabajo y cuidado en salones de belleza. Luz Gabriela Arango y Javier Pineda (eds.). Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia. 
  • La Furcia, Ange (2016) “Los colores de las fantasías: Estudios sobre masculinidades en Colombia: crítica feminista y geopolítica del conocimiento en la matriz colonial”. Revista Colombiana de Sociología. Vol. 39, No. 1, p. 47-78. 
  • Posso, Jeanny Lucero y La Furcia, Ange (2016) “‘El fantasma de la puta-peluquera’: Género, trabajo y estilistas trans en Cali y San Andrés Isla, Colombia”. Revista Latinoamericana Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad de Brasil. No. 24, pp.172-214. 
  • Honorary mention of the award Carlos Monsiváis, New York, 29 May 2016, Section on Sexualities in Latin American Studies Association LASA for the article “Pigmentocracia del deseo en el mercado sexual trans de Cali, Colombia (2014)” co-authored with Emeritus Professor Fernando Urrea Giraldo, Universidad del Valle.   

In 2015, I was funded by Colciencias (National Department of Science, technology and innovation) as a junior researcher at the Center for Research and Studies on Gender, Women and Society, Universidad del Valle. 

In 2017, I also received a research award from the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History ICANH for my master’s project.