Kinship and Reproduction

This research line analyses the social and cultural construction of reproduction, of the reproductive body and its medicalization, and investigates (non-)reproductive politics and practices in different social and cultural contexts, the individualization of kinship relationships, gender relations and the formation of homoparental families. The completed projects – The individuation of kinship relationships. An anthropological study, and Women traveling to seek abortion care in Europe – and the current project – Travelling to seek abortion care: abortion travel and support networks for pregnant people seeking abortion care in Europe and Latin America– are part of this thematic axis.

Coordinators: Silvia De Zordo and Marta Ausona

Identity Processes and Social Control

Identity processes are the product of sociocultural dynamics that intertwine social control mechanisms and practices of resistance. How do devices of social exclusion work to define, label and categorise bodies, identities and expressions? What strategies do stigmatised people incorporate to assert their rights?

This ongoing tension between stigma and pride shapes the experiences of collectives that transgress conventional norms and social practices imposed by hegemonic structures. Analysing these swaying itineraries, on the one hand, in terms of infringement of rights and as asserted rights  on the other is the what guides this research area. The project SupportVoC. Development of a Generic Support Services Model to enhance the Rights of Victims of Crime belongs to this research line.

Coordinators: Emma Fàbrega

Sexual and Gender Diversity
and  LGTBI+ Studies

This research line focuses on the tenets and categories that conform our system of sexual and gender identity and the problematisation of normativities and exclusions that these entail. It seeks to contribute to knowledge on sexual, corporal and gender diversity through participative ethnography in order to imagine new discourses and representations that challenge the androcentric, heteronormative and cisnormative system, whilst incorporating knowledge and struggles of the LGTBI+ movements.

The project DIVERCITY: Preventing and combating homo- and transphobia in small and medium cities across Europe belongs to this line.

Coordinators: Livia Motterle and Oscar Guasch

Body and Health

This research line aims to contribute to the knowledge on the cultural construction of the body and the influence of models and social representations of gender in bodily constructions and in the processes of health and illness, from a transnational perspective. It also analyses the relationship between the internalisation of gender roles which from the cultural imaginary justify the asymmetries of power and gender violence, with attitudes, behaviours and concessions that sustain their existence. Similarly, it addresses issues related to mental health, processes of inclusion/exclusion and functional diversity.

Beyond its analytical effort, this area also focuses on designing tools for evaluation and intervention.

Coordinator: Dolors Rodríguez Martin

Mobilities and Migrations in the
Contemporary World

This research line stems from the mobility-migration nexus, considering the potential of a combined approach to produce knowledge and critical debate about the diverse forms of contemporary mobilities and the role they play in the reorganisation of society and the labour markets. We understand mobilities as processes of transformation that encompass spatial, symbolic and temporal movements, fashioning personal and collective projects.

The line focuses on the impact that contemporary mobilities have on creating dynamics of precarization, inequality, segregation and privilege; as well as on the production of significant practices that will shape the future of work.

Coordinators: Rosa Lázaro Castellanos and Fabiola Mancinelli

Territory, Decoloniality and Resistances

This research area focuses its analysis on the different forms of political and social resistance that peasant communities and indigenous peoples from the Global South articulate around the defence of their territories. From a decolonial feminist focus, and with collaborative ethnographic methodologies, the research work developed from this area aim to contribute to the visibilisation and understanding of political proceses, social movements and cultural dynamics deployed by people who claim for the safeguard of their territorial space against extractivism proceses, displacement and despoilment, consequences of modern and colonial logics.

Coordinators: Maria Ignacia Ibarra Eliessetch and Claudia Albano Crespo

Art, Aesthetics, and Identity

Artistic interdisciplinarity (multidisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, etc.) emphasises collaboration and exchange among diverse artistic languages, such as music, dance, visual arts, literature, film, performances, and so on, as a cohesive and holistic art project. Philosophical reflection into these artistic relations’ processes and results take us to the analysis of identity from a wide range of perspectives, such as the construction of processes that identify the work with its author, and the work with its public.

Furthermore, the “subject” (or “I”) construction and that of “us” (or “collective”) finds in the current total artwork (product of the transformation generated by the XIXth century notion of Gesamtkunstwerk) a model reproduced by commercial, alternative, and digital means and media, creating or deconstructing a gender identity within consumist society.

 Coordinator: Magda Polo Pujadas