Mónica Farías

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.