Hosted by University of Cambridge PhD student Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, in solidarity with the scholars and students currently in struggle against state violence in Perú, this panel features Peruvian scholars Prof Cecilia Méndez (UC Santa Barbara) and Dr Patricia Oliart (Newcastle University). The event is co-hosted by KPP, CLAREC and the Universities in Crisis project.  
 
Perú is facing a significant political crisis during which many people have been killed. You can read more about it here and the way it is affecting universities here.  This event will reflect on the current situation in Perú, as well as the fate of universities during political crises, touching upon questions of university autonomy and the role of universities in politics. There will be a chance to ask questions. 

Professor Cecilia Méndez has been appointed as Director of the Latin American and Iberian Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Méndez is a Professor of History and the author of The Plebeian Republic: The Huanta Rebellion and the Making of the Peruvian State (2005), which won the Howard F. Cline Award for “the best book on indigenous history in Latin America.”

Patricia Oliart is Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at Newcastle University. Since January 2015, she was co-coordinator of a Horizon 2020 Marie Curie project Cultural Narratives of Crisis and Renewal (CRIC). She was a recipient of the Cátedra Alberto Flores Galindo in 2017 and fellow at the Advance Collaborative Research program at the City University of New York in 2019. Publications of her current research cycle on Youth and politics include her chapter Youth protest culture in Lima (2011-2016) in an edited book by Jordi Nofre and Ricardo Campos Ibero-American Youth Cultures in the 21st Century Creativity, Resistance and Transgression in the City by Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, and her edited book Pedagogías de la disidencia en América Latina. Lima, Peru: La Siniestra Ensayos, 2020.