Conference Organizers
Laura Correa Ochoa
Laura Correa Ochoa is an assistant professor in the History Department at Rice University and a member of the executive committee of the Center for Latin America and Latinx Studies (CELAS) and affiliate member of the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS). She is a social and political historian of Latin America and the Caribbean writing at the intersections of Afro-Latin American and Indigenous studies. Her research unravels the intersections of racial and economic inequalities, social movements and political violence in Colombia in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her first book project examines the connected histories of Indigenous and Black struggles for self-determination in Colombia in the twentieth century. She received a PhD in History from Harvard University and an Honours BA in history and political science from the University of Toronto.
Rice University
Mariana Diaz Chalela
Mariana Díaz Chalela is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American history at Yale University. Her research interests include the history of international development, state formation, agrarian reform, and the role of law in shaping historical change. Her dissertation, “Borrowing Out of Poverty: Credit and State Formation in the Making of Rural Colombia (1929-1980),” examines the history of agricultural credit policies in Latin America and their connection to state formation and land politics. Mariana is also involved in transitional justice efforts in Colombia and has done work with the Colombian Truth Commission Archive. Before coming to Yale, Mariana earned her law degree and an M.A. in History at Universidad de los Andes and worked as a lawyer in Colombia.
Yale University
Zannah Mae Matson is an Assistant Professor in the Program in Environmental Design at University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on the intertwined processes colonization, extraction, and infrastructure development, both within Colombia’s eastern piedmont as well as Canada’s extensive mining sector.
She is an active member of Beyond Extraction, which is a collective of researchers, writers, artists, and activists who come together to critically investigate and resist extraction in its various forms. She has a Master in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and in professional practice worked with OPSYS Landscape Infrastructure Lab as Project Manager and Lead Exhibition Designer for the Canada Pavilion EXTRACTION at theVenice 2016 Architecture Biennale. Matson is the co-editor of recent special issues on extraction in the Journal of Architectural Education and the Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada.
University of Colorado Boulder
Zannah Mae Matson
Fatima Bazan Mota is a passionate higher education administrator who moved from Mexico to the U.S. in 2017. With an MBA in Project Management and a Bachelor's in Business Administration, focusing on Marketing, she brings a mix of skills and creativity to her work. As an Undergraduate Program Administrator in the School of Humanities, she enjoys managing programs related to Theater, Medical Humanities and Latin American and Latinx Studies, helping to create vibrant learning experiences. Before this, she worked as a Program Coordinator for a graduate program, where she loved supporting students and developing new initiatives. Outside of work, Fatima loves animals, solves puzzles, and has recently discovered the joy of building with Legos. She also likes to work out (lifting), though it’s not as consistent as she would like. Always ready to tackle new challenges, she is dedicated to making a positive impact in the academic community.
Rice University
Fatima Bazan Mota
Alejandra Osejo-Varona
Alejandra Osejo-Varona is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology at Rice University, working at the interface of Environmental Anthropology, STS, and Political Ecology. Her research focuses on socio-ecological conflicts and environmental governance in Colombia. Currently, her doctoral project examines the intertwining of human and non-human life in the Magdalena River, specifically analyzing the ethical and political implications of "invasive species" in the context of conservation. Alejandra explores how scientific modeling and local care strategies shape the future of aquatic fauna and territorial restoration in regions affected by long-term conflict.
Rice University
David Sánchez is a Ph.D. student in the History Program at Rice University. Before joining Rice, he worked as a lecturer at the University of Tolima (Colombia), where he taught courses in environmental history and Latin American history. He also worked as a professional historian at Colombia’s General Archive of the Nation, where he engaged with archival collections related to the Colombian armed conflict.
Rice University