Sociologist and activist, she is a member of the free independent collective Colectivx Ch’ixi in Bolivia. Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui has been professor of Sociology at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz (UMSA), where she is now Emeritus Professor, and has been a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Columbia (New York, USA), Austin (Texas, USA), La Rábida (Huelva, Spain), Jujuy, and the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (Quito, Ecuador). Along with other intellectuals, in 1983 she founded the Andean Oral History Workshop (THOA), a self-managed group which focuses on orality, identity and the indigenous and popular social movements, particularly in the Aymara region. In the last few years she has also been involved in the setting-up of El Tambo Colectivo, a cultural centre in La Paz which aims to combine academic knowledge, manual work and environmental practices. She is the author of several books, and she has also directed fiction and documentary videos and films. Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui’s work deals with continuity in the logic of domination of indigenous identities and cultures, including in those contexts where diversity and the value of indigenous cultures have been officially recognised.

Website (in Spanish): www.colectivachixi.blogspot.com.es

Facebook (in Spanish): facebook.com/colectivxchixi