Biography

Assistant Professor of Sociology at Leiden University College The Hague. Trained academically and professionally as a sociologist in Chile, I completed my PhD at the European University Institute with a thesis focused on the role of public spaces as social underpinnings of democracy. In 2008, I took up a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Edinburgh to carry out a research on another quiet prevalent urban form, walls, and the way in which they have been shaping European cities until nowadays. Since 2010 I am working at LUC The Hague,  where I convene the Gender Minor and the Global Challenges Diversity course. I am interested in the uses of theory in everyday life and how large socio- political processes, such as democratization or migration, affect and shape public spaces in contemporary cities in Europe and Latin America. My research focuses on the processes of border-making in conceptual terms, but also related to the visible manifestations of  identity politics and the challenges of belonging. Ultimately, I am interested to understand how these processes manifest in the urban landscape affecting our daily lives

Academic Expertise

• Border-making
• Citizenship
• Identity/belonging
• Vulnerability/care
• Public Spaces
• Walls

Courses

• Social Theory en Everyday Life
• Paradoxes of Citizenship
• Vulnerability, Gender and the Ethics of Care
• Global Challenges: Diversity (convener)
• Case-studies in Diversity: Theories in Practice.

Publications