Diana Negrín is a geographer and curator who, since 2001, has conducted ethnographic and archival research in Mexico with a primary focus on Wixarika Indigenous territory.  Negrín's scholarship engages human and cultural geography, critical race and decolonial theory, and political ecology, in combination with participatory methodologies. Her current research examines how biocultural perspectives and projects are creating opportunities to conserve and regenerate sacred Wixárika territory. Negrín is author of Racial Alterity, Wixarika Youth Activism and the Right to the Mexican City (University of Arizona Press 2019) and Grandes maestros del arte wixárika (Wixarika Research Center, Secretaría de Cultura, Casa Wilmot 2019). 

@diana_negrin (Twitter) / @geo.grafiando (instagram) / www.diananegrin.weebly.com

Publications:

Books:

2019. Racial Alterity, Wixarika Youth Activism and the Right to the Mexican City. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press.

2019.  Grandes maestros del arte wixárika. Acervo Negrín. Guadalajara, Jalisco: Secretaría de Cultura Gobierno de Jalisco; Wixarika Research Center.

 

Chapters (selection):

2021 “Agua y poder en el Altiplano Potosino”. In: Nexos, 26/07/2021. https://medioambiente.nexos.com.mx/agua-y-poder-en-el-altiplano-potosino/

2021 “Water and Power in Wirikuta. Threats New and Old Menace the Sacred Peyote Grounds of the Chihuahuan Desert”. In: The Esperanza Project, 26/09/2021. https://www.esperanzaproject.com/2021/latin-america/mexico/water-and-power-in-wirikuta/

2021 (with Joaquín Urrutia). “La miseria de los megaproyectos y las semillas de la esperanza”. In: Nexos, 15/10/2021. https://medioambiente.nexos.com.mx/la-miseria-de-los-megaproyectos-y-las-semillas-de-la-esperanza/

2020 (with Brahinsky, Rachel and Alex Tarr). A People’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area. Berkeley, California: University of California Press (noviembre 2020)

2019 (with Ingrid Arriaga). “Arte y Procesos Creativos en la Circulación de la Espiritualidad Wixárika” en Entre Trôpicos, coords. Caros Alberto Steil, Renée de la Torre y Rodrigo Tuniol. México: CIESAS; COLSAN.

2018 (with Bonilla et al. “Voces Universitarias: Trayectorias, logros y retos en el Occidente de México”. Juventude Indígena: estudos interdisciplinares, saberes interculturais, Coord. Assis da Costa Oliveira y Lúcia Vitalli Rangel. CLACSO, Universidade Federal do Pará, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.

2018 “It is Loved and It is Defended: Critical Solidarity Across Race and Space”. Antipode: A Journal of Critical Geography, 50(4): 1016-1036.

2015 “El Indio Que Todos Quieren: El consumo de lo huichol tras la defensa de Wirikuta”. Sociedad y Ambiente, 1(8): 54-74.

2015 “Makuyeika: La que anda en muchas partes”. Revista Cuicuilco, 22(62): 37-59.

2012 “Wixárika Youth Activists: Unfixing the Geographic ImagiNation of the Indigenous”. Comparative Indigeneities of the Américas: Towards a Hemispheric Approach, Coord. M. Bianet Castellanos, Lourdes Gutiérrez Nájera, y Arturo J. Aldama. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.

 

Research project als CALAS fellow:

Title: Decolonial spatialities for the conservation, restoration and territorial rearticulation of Western Mexico

Abstract: In recent decades, research in political ecology, human geography, and decolonial thought has shared a growing interest in the concept of biocultural heritage as a response to multiple interconnected social and environmental issues. A generalized conclusion of this research is that environmental degradation and social inequality are the product of an economistic ideology that transforms society and the environment into appendages of the global market. At the same time, the consequences of ecological degradation and social inequality have been a central theme of activism of indigenous and popular communities, who represent "strategic sectors for the survival" of the planet, thanks to their eco-political and cultural knowledge and practices (Toledo 2000: 65). The present research project recovers and analyzes the ecological and cultural initiatives of conservation and restoration that took place since 2010 with specific attention to the Wirikuta Natural Protected Area and as part of the rearticulation of spatial and social relations in the Wixárika ancestral territory.  Using a transdisciplinary theoretical framework and dialogic methodologies, this research will analyze the opportunities and challenges in the construction of sustainable alternatives that seek to articulate the vindication and strengthening of indigenous and peasant biocultural heritage. As a secondary element, it will analyze the ways in which these initiatives are articulated in conjunction with organizations and civil society at regional and transnational scales.