Laura Teresa Loyola Hernandez

PhD candidate, Churchill College

I am interested in women's political participation in local spheres in Latin America, specifically Mexico. My research focuses on women mayors in indigenous communities in Yucatan, Mexico. I am also interested in feminist theory and gender and ethnic performances of identities within local political spheres.

Biography

Qualifications

PhD Candidate in Geography (January 2011 to present), University of Cambridge
Masters in Women's Studies (2010), Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco
BA in International Relations (2007), Universidad de Monterrey

Awards and scholarships

Honourable Mention for the paper entitled "Indigenizing the female body through discipline, the corporeal and performativity" in the Best Graduate Paper Award competition at the Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples in Latin American and the Caribbean Conference (ERIP), 3-5 November, 2011 San Diego, California
Churchill College travel grant 2011
Winner of the National Scholarship of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT) to study a PhD in Geography at the University of Cambridge. From January 2011 to September 2015.
Winner of grant by CONACYT under the project "Género y Ciudadanía en México: estudios de caso" (Gender and citizenship in Mexico: case studies) to develop my fieldwork and a publication for my MA thesis. From August 2009 to July of 2010.
Winner of the National Scholarship of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT) to study a master in Women Studies at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. From August 2008 to August 2010.
Winner of the "Premio de Excelencia Académica" for achieving the highest GPA in International Studies BA in the state of Nuevo Leon awarded by the Federación de Colegios Profesionales del Estado de Nuevo León, A.C., (the Professional Federation of Colleges in the state of Nuevo León, A.C.) in April 2008.
CUM LAUDE AWARD in Universidad de Monterrey December 2007 (Best GPA in class).
Undergraduate thesis won the "Excelencia Academica" award by the Universidad de Monterrey (November 2007).
Winner of the "Academic Compensation Scholarship" (Teacher assistant) to study a BA in International Studies at Universidad de Monterrey (50% tuition) 2004 until 2006.
Distinguish Student Award (Best GPA of the whole academic department), Spring 2007. Universidad de Monterrey.
Distinguish Scholarship Service Award. Granted for being recognized as an outstanding student assistant with an Academic Compensation Scholarship. January and August, 2005.

Research

Yucatan is a southern state of Mexico. It is the state with the largest indigenous speaking language population in the country (the peninsular Mayas). However, the Yucatan example differs profoundly from indigenous women's political activism in Mexican states such as Oaxaca and Chiapas. Whereas in the latter states, multicultural legislation has permitted the adoption of customary political processes which engage indigenous women in distinctive types of political office, organization and performance of identities. By contrast, Yucatan's state constitution permits only standard political parties and electoral process, which means that indigenous women have to become candidates for "historical" political parties in order to gain office. Specifically, indigenous women have to be chosen as electoral candidates for the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) or Partido Revolucionario Democrática (PRD) parties, among others.

It is within this context that my research focuses on women mayors in indigenous communities in Yucatan, Mexico. I am interested in how gender, ethnic and political identities are constructed, rearticulated and performed by diverse subjects within the Mexican municipal context by and through their bodies. Furthermore, little research has been done regarding women mayors within feminist studies. I hope to contribute to feminist debates on state theory, so we have a better understanding of the multiple discourses and practices that comprise the state and the exercise of state power at a local level from indigenous women's point of view. I also seek to contribute to the possibility of viewing the state and women politicians as dynamic, unstable categories and subjects.

Publications

Selected publications

Loyola Hernández, Laura Teresa (2011) Las doñas quieren jugar: presidentas municipales en Yucatán, Editorial Académica Española, España (The ladies want to play: women mayors in Yucatan)
Loyola Hernández, Laura Teresa (2011) "Mi casa, mi pueblo: presidentas municipales en Yucatán" in Mónica Cejas and Ana Lau Jaiven (coord.) Mujeres y Ciudadanía en México: estudios de caso, Itaca/Conacyt/UAM-X ("My house, my pueblo: women mayors in Yucatan" in Women and citizenship in Mexico: case studies)
Loyola Hernández, Laura Teresa (2011) "El poder detrás de las palabras: El discurso hacia la mujer antes y después de la Revolución Islámica en Irán" in Dalia Barrera Bassols and Raúl Arriaga Ortiz (ed.) Género, Cultura, Discurso y Poder, ENAH (forthcoming) (The discourse towards women before and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran" in Gender, Culture, Discourse and Power)

Conferences

Participant as a speaker in the Second International Conference on Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples in Latin American and the Caribbean Conference (ERIP), 3-5 November, 2011 San Diego, California with the paper entitled "Indigenizing the female body through discipline, the corporeal and performativity"
Participant as a speaker in the First Internal Colloquium of the specialization-masters in Women Studies with the paper "Presidentas municipales de Yucatán: perfiles, trayectorias políticas y profesionales y acciones a favor de las mujeres durante su gestión" (Women mayors in Yucatán: profiles, political and professional trajectories and actions in favor of women during their governments) in the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, 13to 15 of July, 2009.
Participant as a speaker in the table Gender, History and Feminist Discourse with the paper "El poder detrás de las palabras: el discurso hacia la mujer antes y después de la revolución islámica" (The power behind words: the discourse towards women before and after the Islamic Revolution), organized by the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National School of Anthropology and History) from the 7th to the 9th of October, 2008.

External activities

Member of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) since 2011
Member of the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS) since 2011