Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 2189
E-Mail:	j.c.g.aguiar@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for History, Talen en culturen van Latijns Amerika
Office Address:	Witte Singel-complex van Wijkplaats 3 2311 BX Leiden
Personal Homepage:	www.border-city.net

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Spreekuur/Hours

Tuesdays 15:30-16:30 hrs

Fields of interest

I am specialized in legality, borders, security and policing issues, and have conducted extensive fieldwork in Latin America, particularly in Mexico and the tri-border area between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. My research interests include the ethnography of urban space, marketplaces, illegal commodity chains, border cities and international bridges.

Research

Currently I am carrying out the research project titled 'Actors and networks at the Tri-Border area'. Since the 19th century, the Paraguayan, Brazilian and Argentinean states have launched different programmes to produce and enforce their national borders where the three countries meet, the Tri-border area. Through the years, this zone enjoyed some kind of regime of exception and turned into a ‘forgotten’ wild spot, where contraband expanded with the illegal trade of spirits, cars, cigarettes and other goods. Yet, since the early 1990s the area has gained much attention. With the arrival of new ethnic groups, mainly Muslim and Asian migrants, the urban conglomerate at the cities of Ciudad de Este, Foz de Iguazú and Puerto Iguazú experienced a demographic boom. These new residents have expanded the scope of the networks visible at the Tri-border area. According to the US government, the region has become a nest of terrorists (reportedly, Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qai’da cells are present there) and organized criminals (international human traffickers and drug smugglers). The region poses interesting questions regarding the ethnography of national borders, the reduction of crime and illegality against the background of globalisation, and South-South relations in the context of transnational networks.

Curriculum vitae

- PhD in social sciences at the University of Amsterdam.  
- Assistant professor in the Department of Latin-American Studies (TCLA), Leiden University.
- Member of the National Researchers System (SNI), CONACYT, Mexico.
- Editor of the anthropological journal Etnofoor.
- Member of the Scientific Council of the Mexico Institute, University of Groningen.

Teaching activities

Framing the Latin American City: Urban Space, Legality and Security; Civil Society in Latin America; Research Methodologies for Latin America; Mexico: society and culture

Publications

(forthcoming) 

‘Cities on edge: illegality and contestation of borders in South America’.

2010  La piratería como conflicto. Discursos sobre la propiedad intelectual en México', in Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica. 

2010 ‘The ‘war on piracy’: globalization and new illegalities in Mexico’ in Wil Pansters (ed.), Illegality, Violence and the State in Mexico, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto.

2010 'Guns, blood and coke. Drug-trafficking as wilderness' in Etnofoor, 22(1).