Faculty Member, Health Improvement and Public Health
Research Fellow
About
Gonzalo Araoz
Anthropologist (PhD)
After having been involved in anthropological research and development projects in rural areas of the Bolivian Lowlands (e.g. with the Tsimane people in the North-West and with the Weenhayek in the South) and Highlands (mainly with Quechua speaking communities in the Andean Department of Oruro), I developed a doctorate research on the spatial and temporal configuration of identity and difference in the Carnival of Oruro. My involvement in the study of festivals emerged from a perceived need to develop a reflective approach to socio-economic, political and cultural phenomena observed in urban multi-cultural contexts.
As a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Cumbria, I have founded the Transatlantic Research and Development Network on Mental Health and the Arts TRAMHA (www.tramha.org), which brings together people from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds to explore and discuss the links between creativity and mental health in different Latin American and European contexts. I am currently organising the 3rd TRAMHA Parallel Seminar Series, which will take place on 15-16 July in La Paz and Lancaster, and have submitted an application for funds to the British Academy to organise two international Conferences in 2011 and 2012. My involvement in the development of the TRAMHA Network has also enabled me to participate in the Global Conferences on Madness: Probing the Boundaries, organised by Inter-Disciplinary Network (IDNet) in Oxford. The Director of IDNet has invited me to lead the Madness group, and I am currently editing the project’s second volume. We are also planning to create a specific Latin American Link for IDNet, to develop upon the achievements of the network and to incorporate colleagues from different Latin American countries who will bring a range of different perspectives to several projects, particularly in relation to madness, the grotesque, the representation of evil and the arts.
My interest in Latin American Arts and Literature dates back to my years as an undergraduate student. Originally, it was my involvement as a studio assistant with a Bolivian painter (Sol Mateo) during the mid 80s that triggered my interest in anthropology, and after nearly two decades of anthropological research in a wide range of thematic fields, I am currently reflecting upon the links between creativity and wellbeing in specific contexts. I am also collaborating with the Argentinean anthropologist Guillermo Wilde on a Spanish translation of Alfred Gell’s Art and Agency, which will be published by SB Publishers (Buenos Aires), after having secured rights with Oxford University Press. We are currently designing a comparative research programme on the anthropology of art in Latin America
Most of my research endeavours have been characterised by a multidisciplinary approach to the study of socio-cultural processes. The study of spatial behaviour and temporal perception demanded, for example, special attention to the contributions of history, philosophy, literature, psychology, architecture, ethnomusicology and the visual arts. Additionally, my investigations in the Andes, the Amazon basin, and the Chaco region have shed light upon some cultural features of these three main areas of South America. They also enabled me to discuss topics as varied as mythological narrative, dance performances, ritual practices, culture and the environment, kinship and social space, concepts of health and illness, notions of space and place, temporal perception, visual anthropology and the history of the anthropological gaze.
Amongst my most recent and upcoming publications are:
Araoz, G. Carving Dreams on Marbles Lost: The Transatlantic Research Network on Mental Health and the Arts. In White, K. (editor), Configuring Madness: Representation, Context and Meaning, Inter-Disciplinary Press, Oxford UK, 2009.
Araoz,G. Madness in the arts and the art of madness: The Transatlantic Network on Mental Health and the Arts (TRAMHA), International Journal of the Arts in Society, Volume 4, Issue 4, pp.153-160, 2009
Araoz, G. Alba: Time, Rhythm and Memory in the Oruro Carnival. In Wood and Bronfman (editors), Cultures of Sound and Listening in Latin America, currently under review: Pittsburgh University Press.
Araoz, G. Imageries of Grotesque Realism: the Carnival of Oruro, Bolivia. Book proposal in preparation for submission to Pittsburgh University Press.
Araoz, G. (editor) Madness in Con-Text: Historical, Poetic and Artistic Perspectives, in preparation for publication by Inter-Disciplinary Press, Oxford UK, 2010
