Patricia Alvarez Astacio

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Departments/Programs

Anthropology

Degrees

University of California, Santa Cruz, Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Cruz, M.A.

Expertise

Visual anthropology, documentary/ethnographic filmmaking, Latin America, indigeneity, capitalism, the senses

Profile

Patricia is an anthropologist and filmmaker whose scholarly research and creative practice develops in the folds between ethnography, critical theory, sensory ethnography, and the documentary arts. Her most recent works converge on issues of gender and ethnic representations in neoliberal, post-authoritarian Peru. She is currently working on her book manuscript Moral Fibers: Making Fashion Ethical. The book critically explores the Peruvian alpaca wool supply chain analyzing how, through the intervention of development projects, indigenous women artisans and their aesthetic traditions are interpolated into “ethical fashion” manufacturing networks. Moral Fibers unites the fields of political economy, ethnic studies, aesthetic theory, and gender studies to expand our thinking about the parameters and exclusions encoded into “ethical capitalism.”

Her latest film Entretejido weaves together the different sites and communities involved in this supply chain, bringing viewers into contact with the ways objects we wear are entangled in national racial politics and histories. The film, which premiered at the Havana International Film Festival, extends her long-standing critical engagement with aesthetic politics, sensorial and embodied forms of knowledge.

She is starting to work on an ethnography and film of the color magenta exploring its symbolic, cultural, racial, gendered, political and industrial life.

Courses Taught

ANTH	113b	Race and Ethnicity: Anthropological Perspectives
ANTH	130b	Visuality and Culture
ANTH	131b	Latin America in Ethnographic Perspective
ANTH	138a	Digital Cultures
ANTH	170b	Multispecies Ethnography: Anthropology Beyond the Human

Awards and Honors

Best Cultural/Ethnic Documentary Film, Houston International Film Festival (2017)

Honorable Mention for Best Graduate Student Film, Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival (2016)

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, Rice University (2016 - 2017)

UC President's Dissertation Year Fellowship (2013 - 2014)

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2009 - 2012)

Scholarship

Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. "Piece Wages as Ethical Wages: Valuing Peruvian Artisanal Handwork in the Fashion Industry." Anthropology Quarterly (2017). (forthcoming)

Alvarez Astacio, Patricia and Benjamin Shultz-Figueroa. "In Conversation: Trinh T. Minh-ha." The Brooklyn Rail: Critical Perspectives on Arts, Politics, and Culture.

Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. "Screening Room Series." Visual and New Media Review, Cultural Anthropology Online (2017)

Entretejido. Director, Producer, Cinematography, Sound and Additional Editing Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. Documentary Educational Resources, 2015.

El Señor de los Milagros/Lord of Miracles. Co-Director, Cinematography Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. Self-Distributed, 2013.

Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. "Anthropologies." Rev. of Anthropologies, by Francois Delaporte & Georges Canguilhem eds.. Visual Anthropology Review vol. 29 of 2 2013

Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. Sintiendo el Tejido. 2012. Ethnographic Terminalia at SOMA Arts Gallery, San Francisco. (Ethnographic Based-collaborative interactive installation produced with Mozhdeh Matin and Cristina Flores Teves).

Por Fin Pari Paula. Co-Director, Cinematographer, Editor Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. Snag Films, 2011.

Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. Archival Video Installation: Life in the Age of Biotechnology. 2010. Multispecies Salon 3: SWARM, Kawliga Studios, New Orleans. (Archival Video Loop).

Finding D-QU: The Lonely Struggle of California's Only Tribal College. Co-Editor Alvarez Astacio, Patricia. Third World Newsreel, 2009.