
Biography
I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina where I received my BA in Geography from the University of Buenos Aires. I moved to the Seattle in 2009 to pursue a Master’s degree in the Geography Department. I graduated in 2011 and moved onto the PhD program, graduating in Summer 2016. I conducted fieldwork in Buenos Aires where I studied Asambleas Populares (Popular Assemblies). My work is guided by concerns about the spatial dynamics underpinning identity formation and political subjectivities, as well as the conformation of political alliances across difference. The focus of my dissertation research is the Argentinean middle classes during and since the socioeconomic crisis of 2001-02, the way they organized into political organizations, the kinds of relations they have established with the poor, and the impact that participating in the asambleas has had on their class identities and political subjectivities, as well as in their poverty politics. I am a passionate teacher and I consider education to be a political act where I strive to help students develop skills in critical thinking and analysis. I strongly believe the classroom has the potential to be a transformative space for both the students and teacher. I am also deeply committed to political activism, something that strongly informs - and cannot be separated from - my intellectual work. I was drawn to Geography at the end of my High School years because Geography is a discipline that takes seriously social justice, power, and exclusion, and because it critically engages with dominant understandings of the economy, the environment, culture, politics and social life in general.
Research
Selected Research
- Farías, M. I., & Lawson, V. A. (2016). Transformative political spaces? : asambleas populares, identity, alliances and belonging in Buenos Aires. [University of Washington Libraries].Adviser: Victoria Lawson
- Farías, Mónica. 2016. "Working Across Class Difference in Popular Assemblies in Buenos Aires." In Encountering the City: Urban Encounters from Accra to New York, edited by Jonathan Darling and Helen F. Wilson,169-186. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. Download PDF
- Farías, Mónica. 2015. "Women’s magazines and socioeconomic change: Para Ti, identity and politics in urban Argentina," Gender, Place & Culture 23 (5): 607-623. DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2015.1034244 Download PDF
- Farías, M. (2011). Embodying economic ’crisis’ : Argentina’s middle classes and the cultural politics of difference. University of Washington.
Courses Taught
Spring 2015, Winter 2015: Introduction to Globalization (online). Instructor
Winter 2013: Introduction to Global Health. Teaching Assistant
Fall 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012: Geographies of Global Inequalities. Teaching Assistant
Spring 2012: The Geography of Food and Eating. Teaching Assistant
Winter 2012: Geography od Development and Environmental Change. Teaching Assistant
Spring 2012: Geographical Patterns of Health and Disease
Winter 2011: The Geography of Health and Health Care. Teaching Assistant
Spring 2010: The Geography of the World Economy. Teaching Assistant
Winter 2010: Geographies of Global Youth. Teaching Assistant