Research

Giving voice to the actual people and their living experiences, the research I have done became my compass and working tool for the past fifteen years. I am overall a researcher inquiring about social life in small communities and organizations, the ways of producing food, landscapes and social connections, and the role of young people in the future of these communities and groups. My research/working skills developed in a co-creative space within the communities and with the people I worked with during this time.

York University, Toronto, ON

Research Associate – Maloca Community Garden / Urban & Native Plant Garden Farm (Keele Campus)

2019 – Present

  • Manage operations of the food-producing research garden including strategic plans, budgeting, procedures & community partnerships; partner with internal & external stakeholders to advocate for fairness, justice & contribution

  • Lead teams of 3 to 50 research students, field assistants and volunteers contributing to operations through planting, harvesting, product distribution and maintenance of the garden

  • Propose, review & evaluate research proposals to ensure the suitable use of the facilities

  • Deliver classes and coordinate classwork for independent studies, undergraduates & graduate research students

  • Coordinate 16 individual plots for the community of gardeners, students, professors & farmers associations

  • Collaborate with the Glendon campus responsible for the conservation laboratory of native plan species; partner with the cooperative program to ensure continuous renewal of plant species and campus embellishment

Highlights

Adapted academic pursuits in the face of the covid pandemic to ensure operational continuity; Implemented strict safety protocols and collaborated with community farms to ensured buy-in & adherence to new procedures

2016 - 2021.

The Social Production of Space and Nature in Peasant Communities of a Costa Rican Dry Forest, and Storytelling of the Seasonally Dry Neotropical Forest.

The theory behind the research puts into conversation discussions of spatiality pursued by such thinkers as Soja with reflection on the traditional Marxist agrarian question concerning the disappearance of peasantry under capitalist social relations of production. It argues that spatial dynamics structure the extent to which the communities under study and many other peasant towns are able to prolong a partially subsistence-oriented livelihood over generations.

The field work took over four years, and more than fifteen years of researching the region entailing a series of workshops, life story interviews, visits to farms and observations of the everyday life of the settlements. The extensive data analysis examines how agrarian families in Bagatzí and Falconiana strike a balance between labour and consumption, drudgery and utility –important experiential aspects of the agrarian question as theorized by Chayanov.

This research concluded that current forms of land use have taken a heavy toll on male workers in the community, and women continue to be excluded from both decision- making and on-farm work. Yet despite adverse conditions and a capitalist environment, these settlements have persisted and survived through the adaptation and production of peasant spaces, including through women’s use of varied portions of the available space for subsistence purposes. The settlements have been unable, however, to assure a generational replacement via their sons and daughters.

University of Costa Rica – Sociology Department
Research Associate

Mar 2010 – Dec 2012    

  • Proposed and led the research for an ambitious project surveying the working conditions & the necessities required for sociology professionals at the national level

  • Proposed programs & content for hybrid, online & in-person participants; incorporated pertinent information into a database for future use

 

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Costa Rica
Research Associate - Social networks formation

Mar 2010 – Dec 2011   

  • Participated in the development of a “Research Proto-Net” with a select group of scientists, educators, programmers & mathematicians; analyzed how to increase student participation & improve the quality of learning initiatives

 

Clodomiro Picado Institute, Faculty of Microbiology, University of Costa Rica
Lead Researcher

Feb 2001 – Dec 2006

  • Lead researcher of the first nationwide database on snakebite hospital cases providing maintenance to the database, responsible for the relations with the Ministry of Health and Hospital Directors and University researchers. Based on this database and the work conducted to make snakebite accidents recognized as working-related incidents, Costa Rica approved in 2022 its first national law providing agricultural workers with healthcare benefits and pensions derived from these accidents.