Marcela Paiva Veliz
- Geography PhD Student
Contact Info
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Biography —
I bring more than twelve years of professional experience in international law and international relations across multilateral and policy-oriented settings. My work included legal analysis, negotiation, mediation, and research, as well as capacity-building initiatives undertaken in collaboration with government officials, civil society organizations, and business representatives, including matters concerning Indigenous Peoples’ priorities. This background informs my scholarship in geography, where I use spatial and relational approaches to examine the legal, institutional, and territorial dynamics shaping issues of justice, sovereignty, and historical redress affecting Indigenous Peoples.
Education —
Research —
My master’s thesis examined the ethnobotany of silflower, a native perennial prairie plant with longstanding relationships to several Native Nations. Through this work, I argued for research methodologies grounded in reciprocal relationships with Indigenous Peoples whose knowledge systems recognize plants as relatives.
As a PhD student in Geography, I study the recovery and return -also known as repatriation or rematriation- of ancestors, cultural belongings, and traditional knowledge. My research focuses on Rapa Nui and other Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral territories are now encompassed by the Chilean state. I seek to bridge gaps among law, policy, and practice and to promote ethical institutional practices and concrete actions toward return that foster place healing and advance Indigenous communities’ self-determination in South America.
Research interests: Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination; legal geographies; Indigenous research methodologies; social justice; human rights; traditional knowledge & ethnobotany; digital humanities.
Teaching —
I teach an introductory course in Human Geography, which examines the relationships between humans and their environments and introduces students to basic concepts in human geography.