Katherine Centellas
Croft Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Phone Number: (662)915-7421
Email: kmcentel@olemiss.edu
http://socanth.olemiss.edu/2011/10/kate-m-centellas/

Key Words:

Research Description: My work focuses on the field of bioscientific and biomedical research in contemporary Bolivia and how this relates to postneoliberal and pluralist processes of identity formation, knowledge production, governance, and citizenship. I recently completed a book manuscript, entitled Plural Science, based on over ten years of fieldwork in Bolivia. I begin by asking basic questions: who is doing what in which kind of laboratories and what are their justifications for research? What is the institutional and bureaucratic framework? I argue researchers in Bolivia self-consciously construct a field of “Bolivian science” that is related to yet distinct from both “global” scientific and “indigenous” knowledge.

I focus on an unlikely population of scientists: young people, mainly women and recent rural-to-urban migrants from humble backgrounds, in one of poorest and most indigenous nations in the hemisphere. It examines the growth of research science, specifically in bioscientific fields, in the context of the contemporary project of “decolonizing” and “refounding” the nation, a project headed by Bolivia’s (and Latin America’s) first self-proclaimed indigenous President, Evo Morales Ayma. I refer to what they do as “plural science” and use this concept to discuss new models of scientific practice that are do not fit classic discussions of centers and peripheries. I connect this to a broader trend in the Global South of decentering and localizing knowledge production for political, ideological, and nationalist purposes. In Bolivia this happens both materially and ideologically; that is, via the content and practice of research coupled with the justifications for it at personal, institutional, and state levels. I claim that it isn’t that Bolivians are unaware of their geopolitical location, poverty, and lack of infrastructure. It is that they just don’t care. Universalizing, modernizing models of scientific practice are irrelevant, even unethical, to many contemporary Bolivian intellectuals. Plural Science analyzes what they are doing instead.

Field School: In addition to my research, I am committed to experiential training in social science research methods. In 2010 I began the Bolivia Field School in La Paz in partnership with the Universidad Católica Boliviana. Students get hands-on social scientific and ethnographic training in La Paz and conduct original research during this program, which may be combined with an intensive Spanish course. Alumni of the field school have used the original research they conducted as the basis for an undergraduate or graduate thesis. I greatly enjoy running the field school and training young scholars in how to design and implement ethnographic research.

Honors Theses:

Cooper, Johanna Avalyn (2022) "A History of Heartache": Korean Reunification through the Eyes of Giseong Sedae (full text)

Amaker, Santana Blaze (2022) The Great Equalizer or a Modern Iteration of Historical Inequality: Artificial Intelligence in Latin America (full text)

Dixon Omere, Zuri Omaray (2022) America's History of Health Disparities: How does this affect the Future in Health Care in Mississippi?

Hisle, Kaylen Renee (2022) Measles and Migration in Colombia and Brazil: Determinants of Differential Disease Impact Resulting from the Venezuelan Crisis (full text)

Jaramillo, Olivia Marie (2022) Learning Local Languages as a Means of Preserving Culture: An Analysis of the Federal Education Laws' Treatment of Regional Languages in the Basque Country and Colombia (full text)

King, Jazmin MiCa (2022) America's History of Health Disparities: How does this affect the future of healthcare in Mississippi?

Lane, Emma Jo (2022) Hezbollah and Venezuela: What is the Relationship?

Hager, Benjamin (2021) Soda, Water, and Convenience: an Evaluation of the Mexican Soda Tax (full text)

Cole, Channell (2021) Being Female and Indigenous: Barriers to Reducing Bolivia's Maternal Mortality Rates Under Evo Morales (full text)

Dudte, Lea (2021) The Impact of Intercultural Healthcare on Indigenous Maternal Health and Access to Care in Ecuador (full text)

Cohn, Kennedy (2021) Fine Particulate Matter and Low Weight Births in Mexico City, Mexico (full text)

Haxton, Claire (2021) Refugees Not Welcome Here: An Analysis of Human Rights Transgressions Under the Migrant Protection Protocols (full text)

Schust, Gabrielle Anna (2020) Who Will Do the Good Works?: The Troubling Case of Secularization and the Failure of the Welfare State in England and Perú (full text)

Wadsworth, Megan (2020) Feminism and Low Breastfeeding Rates in France (full text)

Boyd, William (2020) How Misinformation and Mistrust Compound the Threat of Epidemics (full text)

Pfaehler, David (2020) Electronic Health Records and Health Information Exchange and Their Impact on International Healthcare System Efficiency (full text)

Bass, Caroline (2019) Trafficking of Haitians on the Island of Hispaniola after the 2010 Earthquake (full text)

Gillam, Hallie (2019) The Culture of Football in the United States: How Hegemonic Masculinity Affects and is Expressed in American Football (full text)

Rowan, Leta (2019) "Nosotras Como Mujeres": The Environmental Activism of Indigenous Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon (full text)

Carpenter, Madeleine Hall (2018) Women in the Chilean National Identity: How FÚtbol and Consumption Cultures Affect the Public Sphere (full text)

Crosthwait, Allen G. (2018) Interculturality in Health: The Infant Mortality Rate of Bolivia (full text)

Meeks, Sarah T. (2018) Water, Women, and Migration: Examining the Interconnections Between Water Scarcity, Environmental Migration, and Women in Bolivia (full text)

Smith, Alexis (2018) Out of the margins: Mississippi English language learner curriculum practices and their implications (full text)

Stroup, Sarah Thornby (2018) Social Evils + Stigma: A Cumulative Study of HIV and the Moral Model of Disease in Vietnam, Argentina & Mississippi (full text)

Toppin, Gabrielle (2018) Catholicism and Feminism: A Chilean Paradox (full text)

Moorman, Thomas (2017) Dam Politics: Bolivian Indigeneity, Rhetoric, and Envirosocial Movements in a Developing State. (full text)

Pierce, John (2017) From Rich to Refugee: The Collapse of Venezuela's Healthcare System. (full text)

Richmond, Miller (2017) Psychosocial Care in the Syrian Refugee Crisis. (full text)

Bridges, Laura (2015) Machismo in Chilean Politics: A Case Study of the 2005 and 2013 Presidential Elections. (full text)

Terry, Anna (2014) La Alegría Ya Viene: How Chile's Youth are Reshaping History. (full text)

Wright, Kendra Leigh (2014) Bolivian Public Health Care: Interculturation for Indigenous Rights. (full text)

Bradford, Sabrina Nicole (2013) "Shifting Local Ecologies:�Biocultural Interactions and Ecuadorian Public Health" (full text)

Reid, Claire Nicola (2013) "When Cultures Collide: A Comparative Study of the Culinary Cultures of Uruguay and the Lebanese Community in the Mississippi Delta"

Thoman, Alexandria Marie (2013) "Has Legalized Prostitution Increased Human Trafficking in Brazil? A Discussion of the Brazilian Case on the Eve of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games"

Woods, Sarah Katherine (2013) "Analysis Of Infant And Maternal Mortality As Indicators Of Healthcare Utilization By Indigenous Women In La Paz, Bolvia: The Importance Of Cultural Access"

Wrigley, Emily Rose (2013) "Indigenous Justice: Community Justice and its Role in the Bolivian State"

Mauffray, Erin Rebeccah (2012) "Disaster Community: La Cultura Sesmica of Chile"

Wood, Sarah Elizabeth (2012) "Latin American Mississippians: Ethnography of a Growing Immigrant Population in Northern Mississippi"

Andrews, Scarlett Ashlen (2011) "Ecophilosophies and Environmental Perspectives in the Amazon Rainforest: Conservation through Sustainable Use Projects"

Smith, Peyton Britt (2011) "De Mal en Peor: The Framing of Felipe Calderón’s “War on Drugs” in the United States and Mexican Print Media"

Tucker, Ann Robin (2011) "Body Modifications and Body Image among Argentines: The Prevalence of Plastic Surgery and Eating Disorders in Buenos Aires"

Hester, Daniel Palmer (2010) “¡Que se vayan todos!” :Opportunity Structures, Social Movement Mobilization, and the Argentine Piquetero Movement