{"id":87022,"date":"2023-07-25T17:11:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T21:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=87022"},"modified":"2023-07-25T17:12:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T21:12:52","slug":"grad-students-guatemalan-travels-inform-canadian-mining-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2023\/07\/grad-students-guatemalan-travels-inform-canadian-mining-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Grad student\u2019s Guatemalan travels inform Canadian mining research"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Brock University graduate student Morgan Crosby mentioned a book that inspired her research to her methodology class last fall, she could not have predicted the discussion would lead to attending a field school in Guatemala<\/a> with the scholars behind it.<\/p>\n

Crosby first read Testimonio: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala<\/em><\/a> before joining Brock\u2019s Master of Arts in Social Justice and Equity Studies (SJES) program, and it shaped her interest in studying the impact of Canadian mining in Guatemala. The book was co-edited by Professor Catherine Nolin of the University of North British Columbia and Grahame Russell, Director of Rights Action.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Ebru Ustundag, a member of Brock\u2019s Department of Geography and Tourism Studies as well as the interdisciplinary SJES faculty, taught Crosby methodology and, hearing of her interest in the book, shared that she knew Nolin, a fellow geographer. Ustundag was also aware of a long-running field school run by Nolin and Russell in Guatemala for Canadian students.<\/p>\n

\"Students,

The field school participants gathered at FAMDEGUA, a group started by the families of the murdered and disappeared from the time of Guatemala\u2019s Internal Armed Conflict. Brock Master of Arts in Social Justice and Equity Studies student Morgan Crosby is seated to the left of the person holding two photographs, on the sofa. Professor Catherine Nolin of the University of British Columbia is kneeling on the floor, wearing white. Grahame Russell is in the back row, far left. (Photo courtesy of M. Jonker-Argueta)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhen I saw that the field course was being offered, I recommended Morgan get in touch with Dr. Nolin,\u201d says Ustundag. \u201cI thought Morgan would definitely benefit from being on the ground and sharing knowledge with folks who have been collaborating with Indigenous communities in Guatemala for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

For two weeks in May, Crosby travelled with the group around the country to different mining sites to hear land defenders and others describe the impact of the extractive industry on their lives, homes and families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat hit me the most was being able to see where everything happened and contextualize everything I\u2019ve been researching,\u201d says Crosby. \u201cCommunity members affected by Canadian mines want their stories shared, especially here, because it is a Canadian problem and we have a responsibility for how detrimental mining is to these communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crosby\u2019s supervisor, Assistant Professor Liam Midzain-Gobin in Brock\u2019s Department of Political Science and a member of the SJES faculty, was all for the idea and excited to see its impact on Crosby\u2019s project.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring her trip, Morgan got to hear\u00a0testimonio<\/em>\u00a0from many of those affected by mining projects \u2014 she heard about the ways that companies collaborated with local and national governments to dispossess them of their land and perpetrate violence against community members standing up for their rights against this dispossession,\u201d he says. \u201cThe trip and its visits to communities also helped Morgan be able to centre the voices of those offering\u00a0testimonio<\/em>\u00a0as the experts in how this violence occurs and its meanings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now working on the proposal for her Major Research Paper under Midzain-Gobin\u2019s supervision, Crosby says that seeing the impacts of mining up close and not just in the pages of a book has made her very curious about the narratives promoted by Canadian companies and the contrast to the voices of those in Guatemala who have been impacted by them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m planning to focus on Canadian mining company websites, which can make it seem that what they\u2019re doing is helpful or benefitting Guatemalan communities \u2014 and Indigenous communities, specifically \u2014 and then seeing how that compares to the actual impact,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Brock University graduate student Morgan Crosby mentioned a book that inspired her research to her methodology class last fall, she could not have predicted the discussion would lead to attending a field school in Guatemala with the scholars behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":87023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[188,55,1,5,38],"tags":[12811,5014,4104,3504,607,522,9486,12567,128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87026,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87022\/revisions\/87026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}