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Staff profile

Overview

Dr Diego Astorga De Ita

Postdoctoral Research Associate

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Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Geography 

Biography

I am a cultural geographer interested in cultural and political ecology, materiality, decoloniality, and sustainability. Through my research I explore the materiality of different cultural manifestations, like music or food, in relation to colonial histories, and what this means for our lives in the Anthropocene.

I have a BSc in Environmental Science (UNAM), MSc in Biology (UNAM), and a PhD in Human Geography (Dunelm). My doctoral research looked into son Jarocho in the Sotavento region of eastern Mexico, considering the links between this traditional music and the landscapes of the region, in a context of environmental change.

Before re-joining Durham as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UNAM's Institute for Ecosystems and Sustainability Research (IIES-UNAM) working on the traditional foodscapes of Lake Xochimilco in southern Mexico City. During this time I was a part of Cocina CoLaboratorio, an interdisciplinary collective working within and beyond academia, exploring questions of sustainability through the kitchen, focusing on food and cooking.

I am now back in the Department of Geography as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, conducting research on food, culture, and decoloniality.

A spiral of white corn tortillas wrapped in a large kitchen towel.

Research interests

  • I am interested in questions of sustainability and culture, particularly on cultural expressions and their material forms in the context of the Anthropocene.