Research

Afro-descendant Cultural Heritage and the Politics of Diversity in Latin America


For the past decade my work has focused on better understanding the relationship between cultural public policy and ethno-racial inequality in Latin America. I have been particularly interested in examining what happens to minority communities once their cultural practices have been declared by their state or by UNESCO as “Intangible Cultural Heritage.” Specifically, I analyze how such heritage designations may contribute to reduce ethno-racially based segregation and trace the benefits and obstacles that public recognition creates for minorities. I have incorporated my experience as a former public official in the Colombian Ministry of Culture into my academic research, hoping to understand the limits of current cultural public policy to address systematic issues of oppression, inequality, and exclusion experienced by disenfranchised groups in Colombia such as Afro-descendants. As a Colombian anthropologist who lived through the wave of multicultural reforms spreading across Latin America during the 1980s, I am particularly intrigued by the ways in which these cultural policies have backfired, further entrenching the problems multiculturalism was meant to dismantle. With these interests in mind, I have devoted my academic career to conducting ethnographic research that is useful both inside of and outside academia and can help inform public policymakers about the long-term impacts of their work. My first major research project is a long-term multi-sited ethnographic analysis of heritage policies in Colombia. Specifically, this project examines the effects of the declaration of San Basilio de Palenque’s Afro-descendant culture as “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO in 2005. This declaration has given international visibility to the community of San Basilio de Palenque and provided its members with new sources of funding for cultural projects. Using Palenque as my case study, I ask why disparities within Afro-Colombian groups continue to increase despite the unprecedented public attention for Afro-descendants and creation of policies intended to combat ethno-racial inequality. I argue that by deliberately using visibility as a form of inclusion, state-sponsored multicultural policies, in practice, further entrench already existing inequalities and maintain structural discrimination.

Under Review | Escallón, Maria Fernanda. Becoming Heritage: Recognition, Exclusion, and the Politics of Black Cultural Heritage in Colombia

2019 | Escallón, Maria Fernanda. Rights, Inequality and Afro-Descendant Heritage in Brazil. Cultural Anthropology. 34(3): 359-387. doi: 10.14506/ca34.3.03

2018 | Escallón, Maria Fernanda. Heritage, Land, Labor and Competing Claims for Afro-Colombian Rights. International Journal of Cultural Property 25(1): 59-83. doi:10.1017/S0940739118000061

2019 | Escallón, Maria Fernanda. Entre Promesas y Problemas: Diversidad, Patrimonio Cultural y las Políticas de Reconocimiento en Colombia y Brasil in Navarro Guida, A., L. S. Domínguez, and P. P. Funari (orgs). Arqueología de contacto en Latinoamérica. São Paulo: Paco Editorial, EDUFMA-Universidade Federal do Maranhão, 97-122.

2017 | Escallón, Maria Fernanda. The Formation of Heritage Elites: Talking Rights and Practicing Privileges in an Afro-Colombian Community in H. Silverman, E. Waterton and S. Watson (eds.). Heritage in Action: Making the Past in the Present. New York: Springer, 63-74.

  • Palenqueras in Cartagena posing for pictures with tourists. Photo credit: M.F. Escallón

  • Statue of Benkos Biohó, San Basilio de Palenque’s renowned military leader, in the main town plaza. Photo credit: M.F. Escallón

  • Palenque after its heritage declaration. Street corner with new signposts for tourists. Photo credit: M.F. Escallón

International Cultural Heritage Governance


My second major research project is a long term ethnographic and archival study of the way in which the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is operationalized. Specifically, my goal is to examine how are communities represented within the UNESCO system, and what spaces are they given to voice their concerns. Contrary to other UNESCO heritage conventions, such as the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the 2003 ICH Convention is explicitly designed to integrate community members in the identification, promotion and safeguarding of ICH. Indeed, the 2003 Convention highlights the importance of NGOs as representatives of local communities who voice civil society’s concerns. My project seeks to understand how NGOs fulfill this role, and while doing so, what are the new entitlements, disciplinary techniques, and networks of power they create.

2019 | Escallón, Maria Fernanda. Negotiating Intangibles: The Power, Place, and Prestige of NGOs in Heritage Governance. International Journal of Heritage Studies. 26(8): 719-736. doi: 10.1080/13527258.2019.1693416

  • Elections for the Steering Committee of the ICH NGO Forum held during the fourteenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Bogota, Colombia (2019). Photo credit: M.F. Escallón

  • Seventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Paris, France at UNESCO headquarters (2012)

COVID-19, Faculty Activism, and Care Work Policies in Academia


Since March 2020, the amount of literature published––both inside and outside academia––on the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on different demographics has exploded. Scholars have warned of the heavier burden of the pandemic for women who face intersecting systems of oppression along racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, gender, age, economic class, dependent status, and ability lines. Academic researchers and journalists have published on how COVID-19 amplifies preexisting inequalities among faculty members, and how it disproportionally affects women, particularly minority or women of color, as they are more likely to be coping with illness themselves, providing care for loved ones, dealing with unemployment in their household, or giving additional emotional support to students, friends, and family. Despite having a better understanding of the faculty caregivers’ pandemic-related struggles, to date, much less attention has been devoted to analyzing the institutional responses of the universities to these challenges. While we fully comprehend that caregivers are lagging behind their non-caregiving colleagues– –publishing at slower rates, failing to apply for new fellowships, and experiencing increased mental health problems––we still have no systematic comparative research on how university administrations have responded to mitigate the pressures of care work and support their most vulnerable faculty. Without a better understanding of the institutional responses– –including the challenges faced by administrators, their priorities, and constraints––efforts to correct individual and institutional equity gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 will likely fail. Turning my attention to university administrators and caregiver faculty organizers in different universities across the United States, my project aims to tackle this issue. What can we learn from comparing different university institutional responses to the pandemic aimed at supporting caregivers? Can we identify best practices that serve as policy models across the country? In answering these questions, I hope not only to evaluate the institutional responses aimed at caregivers and provide a comprehensive map of strategies, but importantly, to elucidate how new forms of faculty organizing and activism may lead to long-awaited policy changes within academia.

For more information about the Caregiver campaign, please visit the CSWS website at: https://csws.uoregon.edu/campaigns/

Blurred lines between work and caregiving: My home office during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo credit: M.F. Escallón