CENTRE for LATIN AMERICAN
RESEARCH and DOCUMENTATION

Webinar Conversations on Ocean Justice

DATE: 20 November

TIME: 16.00-17.30 (CET).​

ACTIVITY: CEDLA EXHIBITION & WEBINAR
VENUE: CEDLA, Binnengasthuisstraat 46, 1012 ZD Amsterdam
 

CEDLA is currently hosting the exhibition Resisting the Tide: Blue Justice and Collective Actions in Fishing Communities of Latin America and the Caribbean in the hallway, upstairs in Gasthuiskerk. This photographic-artistic poster series, created by a transdisciplinary team of scholars and fishing communities in Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, amplifies the voices of coastal peoples as they defend their livelihoods, knowledge systems, and spiritual ties to the maritory. It highlights strategies of resistance to industrial fishing, privatization, pollution, overexploitation, and the growing militarization and criminalization of oceanic communities.

We invite everyone to attend the upcoming related events:

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Webinar Conversations on Ocean Justice: A dialogue with the exhibition’s curators and researchers on ocean justice and how to connect academic research with broader audiences. Discussant: Joeri Scholtens (Assistant Professor, Governance and Inclusive Development, UvA).

Registration Link: Conversations on Ocean Justice

For more information, please contact: Catalina García

Hannah Porada will defend her dissertation titled “Bridging Struggles against Extractivism. From place-based resistance movements toward translocal environmental justice endeavors in the Netherlands and Guatemala."

Supervisors: Prof. R.A. Boelens and Prof. B.B. Hogenboom.
Co-supervisors: Dr J.M.C. Vos and Prof. A.K. Gerlak.

DATE: 27 November 
TIME: 10:00 – 11:30 (CET)

ACTIVITY: PhD Defence
VENUE: Agnietenkapel
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What is this dissertation about?

The extractive appropriation of resources continues to reshape territories worldwide, driving environmental destruction, social injustices, and political turmoil. In response, struggles for social and environmental justice arise at extraction sites, challenging the burdens of resource exploitation, corporate irresponsibility, and power abuse.

Through case studies of gas extraction in Groningen, the Netherlands, and building material mining in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, this dissertation examines the territorial transformations and power struggles at extraction sites. It further explores how place-based resistance movements can engage in translocal learning and solidarity bridges - connecting territories and grassroots organizations - to confront shared injustices and articulate broader demands for justice.

How did the research come about?

Throughout her research, Hannah collaborated with grassroots movements, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and water authorities in both regions. She was also a fellow in the EU-funded NEWAVE network, that sought to address pressing water governance challenges around the world.

You can watch this PhD defence ceremony here

Cover designed by Ricardo Ixcot and Kenri Goméz, Discordia Hermanos

River Defenders in Abya Yala  

DATE: 28 November
TIME: 15:30 – 17:00

ACTIVITY: DIALOGUES WITH CIVIL SOCIETY
VENUE: Turfdraagsterpad 15-17, 1012 XT Amsterdam.
Building & room: Binnengasthuis 2, room 0.08

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This event will bring together three inspiring river defenders from Ecuador and Colombia, who will share their experiences and struggles to protect their rivers and territories from extractivist threats. We aim to create an intercultural dialogue that bridges science and activism, fostering collective reflection and solidarity for living rivers.
 

Biographies of the participants

Jessica Grefa (Río Piatúa, Ecuador). Young Kichwa leader of Piatúa Resiste, a youth activist movement that arose in defense of the Piatúa River, in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest, opposing a hydroelectric dam project. She is also a biologist and master’s student in political ecology (University of Puyo).

Carlos Giraldo (Río Arenal, Colombia). Young activist researcher from the peasant community of the Arenal River, in Antioquia. Founder of the organization Somos Del Río, which organizes public debates and workshops for environmental education, with the goal of impacting environmental policies for river territories protection.

David Fajardo (Cuenca, Ecuador). Environmental activist, member of Cabildo por el Agua de Cuenca, and a young lawyer who works with Rights of Nature and the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador.

Carlota Houart is a PhD researcher at Wageningen University, working on the project "Riverhood: Living Rivers and New Water Justice Movements". Her PhD research focuses on multispecies justice in river territories, inviting critical reflections on the agency and political representation of human and other-than-human beings in shared river worlds and river lives. Carlota is also a member of the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature and has been active with socio-environmental activist groups like Extinction Rebellion.

Ana María Arbeláez-Trujillo is a PhD researcher at Wageningen University, working on the project "Riverhood: Living Rivers and New Water Justice Movements". She is an Environmental lawyer, and her research focuses on the role of law in environmental justice struggles around rivers from a political ecology perspective.

Picture: Río Arenal (Colombia). By Carolina Cuevas Parra

Researching displacement together: co-producing knowledge with displaced women in Colombia    

SPEAKERS: Sonja Marzi, Radboud University and The London School of Economics and Political Science
DISCUSSANT: Conny Roggeband, University of Amsterdam

DATE: 12 December
TIME: 15:30

ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE
VENUE: Vox-Pop, Binnengasthuisstraat 9, Amsterdam
 

This lecture examines the experiences of 24 displaced women in Colombia and the challenges they face while rebuilding their lives in Bogotá and Medellín. Based on co-produced knowledge, it centres the women’s own understandings and descriptions of displacement, rather than treating it as an abstract idea. The lecture explores the economic, social, and political forms of violence that drive displacement and continue to shape urban life long after resettlement. These forms of violence are closely interconnected, producing lasting insecurity. The women’s accounts blur conventional boundaries between scales and types of violence—whether political violence at national, regional, or neighbourhood levels; state violence through action or neglect; or interpersonal harm. Their experiences show how these forces intersect and reinforce one another, making displacement a complex, ongoing condition rather than a single event.