Dr. Doris León Gabriel

Junior Postdoctoral Fellow (Heinz-Heinen-Fellowship)

Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies
October 2023–September 2024

 
Title of current research project: "Being cholo/chola in a criollo world. Cultural changes and social exclusion among Andean youth in Peruvian elite spaces"
Doris León Gabriel
© Doris León Gabriel

Academic Profile

My research focus on social exclusion through the experiences of Peruvian youths with Andean descendent managing the shift in their social position and access to elite spaces. This access itself is a turning point in power relations in Peru due to the increasing socioeconomic advancement of a sector of Andean migrants in the capital city Lima, mainly involved in entrepreneurial activities since the second half of the 20th century, forming a new intermediate social stratum and a new urban culture. These migrants were called cholos, a term referring to their cultural transformation in the city, until then mainly inhabited by the criollos, the elite descendants from Spaniards born in the colonies, who nowadays make up the ruling elite of the country.

This context raises questions about the scope of social mobility and cultural changes in the top segment of youth who inherit the wellbeing forged by their migrant parents. Having access to higher education, this cholo generation meets their peers of the old criollo elite at private universities while still facing different forms of exclusion. They develop new practices, identities and discourses that can challenge or reproduce the inequalities. In this regard, my particular interest lies in the interaction of these two groups relative socioeconomically equal, but culturally different, the latter with political power and attributed higher social status. The research aims to analyze the shaping, enabling and preserving practices that reflect and reproduce inequalities of power by addressing the intersection of the relationships based on social markers of racialization, class, status and gender.

2016
Department Anthropology of the Americas, Bonn University, Research Assistant for the project Reworking national Identities: The consumption and performance of South Asian Genres in Peru

2014
Institute of Peruvian Studies, Peru, Research Assistant for the project Indigenous health, social inequalities and interculturality: research and critical evaluation of Social Politics in Peru

2012–2013
Institute of Peruvian Studies, Peru, Research Assistant for the project Territoriality, regional cultural knowledge and its implications for social mobility in Lima

2016–2022
PhD in Anthropology of the Americas, Bonn University, Germany

2012
Licenciatura in Anthropology, National University of San Marcos, Peru

2005–2010
Bachelor in Anthropology, National University of San Marcos, Peru

(most of them written in Spanish, tittles have been translated)

  • 2022. "Learnings and legacy of Jürgen Golte, german anthropologist in San Marcos." In Investigaciones Sociales 47: 43–52. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
  • 2022. "Jürgen Golte, in memoriam (1943–2021)." In Allpanchis XLIX(89): 253–258.
  • 2019. "Tänze, Festkultur und Unternehmertum im peruanischen Altiplano." In Zeitschrift ILA 422: 16–18.
  • 2015. Experiences and perceptions of child labor in native and peasant communities in three Peruvian regions. Case studies. Lima: DESCO; Desarrollo y Autogestión; World Learning (Debates sobre Trabajo Infantil Rural).
  • 2015. "Teenage sexuality and media culture in Lima." In Subjetividades diversas. Análisis de la situación política, social y económica de las juventudes peruanas, edited by Ernesto Rodríguez and Julio Corcuera, 231–246. Lima: Secretaría Nacional de la Juventud (SENAJU); Oficina Regional de Ciencias para América Latina de la UNESCO. 
  • 2014. With Jürgen Golte. Alasitas. Discourses, practices and symbols of 'Aymara liberalism' among populartion with migrant background in Lima. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
  • 2013. "Perspectives and actions on climate change by farmers from Anta -Cusco." In Revista de Antropología, publicación oficial de la Escuela Académico Profesional de Antropología de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos 7(7): 205-223.
  • 2013. Femininities in conflict and conflicts between girls: construction of femininities, types of transgression and violence among teenage girls in two public schools from Lima. Lima: Secretaría Nacional de la Juventud (SENAJU).
  • 2013. "Mediatized entertainment and protest: characteristics and social scope of flashmobs in Lima." In Movimientos juveniles en América Latina y el Caribe: entre la tradición y la innovación, edited by Ernesto Rodríguez, 249–265. Lima: Secretaría Nacional de la Juventud (SENAJU); Centro Latinoamericano sobre la Juventud (CELAJU). 
  • 2011. With Jürgen Golte. Multifaceted. Youth from Lima in the 21st century. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos; Atoq Editores.
  • 2011. With Jürgen Golte. "Between mediatized entertainment and protest. Uses, contexts and social scope of flashmobs in the Arab Spring and in Lima." In Revista Cultura Urbana: 1–25.
  • 2008. With César Nureña et. al. "Social representations of hegemonic masculinity in queer clubs in Lima downtown." In Anthropologika, Revista de estudio e investigación en Antropología 2 (8): 285–314.