Dr. Pamela Calla

Clinical Associate Professor

Bio

Dr. Pamela Calla is a Bolivian anthropologist engaged with issues of gender, race, class, and state formation in Latin America. She is currently a clinical associate professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at New York University and received the Dr. Martin Luther King Faculty Award in 2016-2017 at that same institution. She co-created and coordinates the Feminist Constellations Platform (2013-Present) and the Working Group on Racisms in Comparative Perspective (2010-Present) at CLACS-NYU. She co-founded the Observatory on Racism in Bolivia (2007-2017) and the Red de Accion e Investigacion Anti-Racista en las Americas, RAIAR (2010-Present), an initiative launched by the Universidad de la Cordillera (Bolivia) and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas. As part of RAIAR, she participated in the collaborative research-action process and contributed to the book Black and Indigenous Resistance in the Americas. From Multiculturalism to Racist Backlash (Lexington Books, 2020) with the Chapter  “The Difficulties of Connecting Anti-Extractivist and Anti-Racist Struggles in Contemporary Bolivia: The Weight of Patriarchy”. She is coeditor of Antropología del Estado: Dominación y prácticas contestatarias en America Latina (2007). She was an Associate Researcher of the "The State of the State in Bolivia", a project of the Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano, 2007, United Nations Development Project and coeditor and author of Observando el Racismo: Racismo y Regionalismo en el Proceso Constituyente Boliviano, Agenda Defensorial No. 11 and 13, 2008. Defensor del Pueblo and Universidad de la Cordillera. 

Areas of Research/Interest

Gender and class
State formation
Education policies
Interculturality
Racism in Bolivia

 

Publications

“Leith Mullings, Our Compañera en Lucha” Colleagues in anti-racist research and action reflect on the life and legacy of anthropologist Leith Mullings. NACLA –Report on the Americas. Vol. 53, No 3, 2021.

Chapter 6 “The Difficulties of Connecting Anti-Extractivist and Anti-Racist Struggles in Contemporary Bolivia: The Weight of Patriarchy” In Black and Indigenous Resistance in the Americas. From Multiculturalism to Racist Backlash. Juliet Hooker (Ed.) Lexington Books, 2020.

Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and New Horizons A contribution of alumni of Columbia’s International Summer Program on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Policy on its Fifth Anniversary, 2013-2017. (Co-Editor) 2018.

“Indigenous women creating theory through action: Gendering the prison and extractive industrial complexes in Latin America.” Review of Aida Hernandez Castillo’s  book Multiple Injustices: Indigenous Women, Law and Political Struggle in Latin America. Desacatos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, CIESAS, Mexico D.F., 2017

“Race Matters in Dangerous Times”  #BlackLivesMatter Across the Hemisphere NACLA Report on the Americas Volume 49, 2017

“Luchas legales y política de las calles en torno al racismo: Decentrando la patrarcalidad del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia”  En Hacia un Futuro Indigena en Mesoamérica y los Andes: Género, Complementariedades y Exclusiones. A. Hernandez and A. Canessa, eds. Ecuador: Ediciones Universitarias Abya-Yala/IWGIA, 2012

“Epilogue: Making Sense of May 24th in Sucre. Toward an Anti-racist Legislative Agenda » In Race and Racism in the Andes and Mesoamerica. Laura Gotkowitz (Ed.) 2011, Duke University Press

Reform and Revolution in South America : A Forum on Bolivia and Venezuela.  Dialectical Anthropology (September 15, 2011) Pamela Calla and Steve Striffler, eds., and authors, Vol 35, No 3, DOI 10.1007 /10624-011-9239-5

“Introducción” Observando el racismo. Racismo y regionalismo en el proceso autonómico: hacia una perspectiva de clase, Agenda Defensorial 13, Revista 2, 2009. Defensor del Pueblo and Universidad de la Cordillera. La Paz: Presencia.

“De país productor de minerales a regiones mineras dispersas: Estado, estaño, identidades laborales y globalización” (From national production of minerals to dispersed regional mineral production: State, tin, labor identities and globalization), in Procesos en la construcción de las identidades políticas actuales en la región altiplano de Bolivia (Processes of contemporary political identity construction in the altiplano region of Bolivia), coordinated by Pamela Calla. La Paz: Fundación UNIR, 2009.

“Introducción”  Observando el racismo. Racismo y regionalismo en el proceso constituyente, Agenda Defensorial 11, Revista 1. Defensor del Pueblo and Universidad de la Cordillera. La Paz: Presencia, 2008.

Antropologia del Estado: Dominación y prácticas contestatarias en America Latina (Anthropology of the State: Domination and practices of resistance against the state in Latin America, co-editor. La Paz: PNUD/Wenner Gren/Universidad de la Cordillera, 2007.

“Mas allá de la tecnocracia. Etnografía del estado”, (co-authored with team), in Informe Nacional sobre Desarrollo Humano 2007 (National Human Development Report). La Paz: UNDP, 2007.

“‘Así caminamos’: Emergencia del discurso de derechos en las trayectorias políticas de mujeres Aymara del altiplano” (‘That is how we walk’: Emergence of a rights discourse in the political trajectories of aymara women), in Gender, ethnicity and political participation. La Paz: Plural, 2006.

“Desarrollo, post-colonialismo y geografía política” (Development, post-colonialism, and political geography, with Nina Laurie) in Nina Laurie and Maria Esther Pozo. Las discipliciencias del género en los cruces del siglo pasado al nuevo milenio. UMSA, CESU, University of New Castle, 2006.

Rompiendo silencios: Una aproximación a la violencia sexual y al maltrato infantil en Bolivia. (Editor) La Paz: Plural, 2005.

“Entre la ley y la autoridad patrimonial”. In Rompiendo silencios: Una aproximación a la violencia sexual y al maltrato infantil en Bolivia. La Paz: Plural, 2005.

“Development, Post-colonialism and Feminist Political Geography” (with Nina Laurie) in Mapping Women, Making Politics. Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography, Eds. Lynn A. Staehelly, Eleonora Koffman, Linda Peake. New York: Routledge, 2004.

“Mujeres hacia la Asamblea Constituyente,” (Women facing the constitutional assembly) Tinkazos 17, November 2004.

 “Transversalizando el género y la etnicidad en la educación boliviana” (Cross-cutting gender and ethnicity in Bolivian education), in Gender, ethnicity and education in Latin America. Madrid: Ediciones Morata, 2004.

“Locating the political in political ecology”(Co-author) Human Organization 62(3):205-217. 2003

“Engaging ethnicity and gender in Bolivia.” (Co-author) Practicing Anthropology 24(4):5-10. 2002

“Una aproximación al género del poder” (Approaches to  the gender of power) Umbrales 11. CIDES-UMSA, 2002.

“Gender and Ethnicity in Bolivian Politics: Transformation or Paternalism?” (Co-author) Journal of Latin American Anthropology, Vol 2, No 2, 2000.

“Mujeres y hombres en escena” (Women and men on the stage), Escarmenar Vol. 1, No. 1 (La Paz), 1995.