On 11 October, Elena del Consuelo Fernandez-Salvador successfully defended her PhD thesis on 'The Shuar and Large-Scale Mining in Zamora-Chinchipe, Ecuador'. The thesis studied the ways in which the Shuar people confront a large-scale mining project in Zamora Chinchipe, the southernmost province in the Amazon region of Ecuador.
The main focus of this work centres on the ways in which the Shuar Federation and its leaders, construct and play out identity discourses and political practices regarding the development of Project Mirador (an open-air copper mine) at different levels of the organization’s hierarchy.
Fernandez-Salvador also examines whether the ethno-politics of the Shuar Federation have been successful in achieving the objectives of their struggles related to mining extraction.
Photos and video of the defence
You can take a look at some photographs taken of the PhD defence and watch the recording of the introduction to the thesis.
