Specialization:
Ph.D. Research Project: "Racism, the state, and agricultural industry. Labour exploitation in northwest Mexico"
Farm wage labour is a precarious work. In Mexico, the academic discussion of the conditions of farmworkers has been in terms of labor policies, human rights, class, vulnerability, health, and gender. In contrast, this research argues that racism is a fundamental element to understand how labour exploitation in agribusiness is legitimized by the state. In this respect, the central question of the project is How the Mexican state categorizes and controls its populations to develop agricultural industries? This study aims to produce an ethnography of the state in northwest Mexico, seeing the administration and execution of public policies involving farmworkers within of international agribusiness projects.
Education:
Gerardo Rodriguez Solis is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology at Universidad of Guadalajara and a master’s degree in Sociocultural Anthropology at El Colegio de Michoacán. Gerardo has been co-author in two book chapters and one article. In 2015, “Agricultural workers, credit rationing and family networks in rural Mexico” was published in the Journal of Development Studies. His MA thesis received an honorary mention in the 5th annual competition of the Arturo Warman Award, Mexico.
Bio:
Gerardo has worked in four research projects, four public policies’ evaluations, and two NGO’s programs in Mexico. Among these, he highlights the project “Rural microfinance and employment. Do processes matter?” with Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) and Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), and the evaluation of “Proyecto Estratégico para la Seguridad Alimentaria-Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (PESA-FAO)” with Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM) and Secretaría de Agricultura, Desarrollo Rural, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimentación (SAGARPA).
Research:
Gerardo is co-author of two book chapters and one article. In 2015, “Agricultural workers, credit rationing and family networks in rural Mexico” was published in the Journal of Development Studies.