Dr Megan  Ryburn

Dr Megan Ryburn

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow

Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC)

Languages
English, Spanish
Key Expertise
Migration, Citizenship, Borders

About me

Megan is a Visiting Fellow in the LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre and Assistant Professor at the Universidad de Chile Instituto de Estudios Internacionales. She was previously a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre and an LSE Fellow in Human Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment. Megan received her PhD from Queen Mary University of London, where she held a Principal’s Studentship jointly funded by the School of Geography and the School of Politics and International Relations. She holds an MPhil in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a BA (Hons) from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Latin American Studies.

Megan’s work focuses on migration, citizenship, violence and borderlands in Latin America. Based on her doctoral research, her first book,  Uncertain citizenship: Everyday practices of Bolivian migrants in Chile (University of California Press 2018), received the Honourable Mention (Social Sciences) for the 2019 LASA Southern Cone Studies Section Book Prize. Her British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship project (2018-2022) used multi-sited ethnography in Antofagasta, Chile and the Pacific Coast Region, Colombia to investigated the cross-border lived experiences of Colombian migrant women in Antofagasta. The project also engaged innovative participatory methods to produce an animated video. Megan is currently working on a second book manuscript, Navigating borderlands: Mapping violence, endurance and joy with Colombian migrant women in Chile, based on this research. Some preliminary writings can be found here.

She is also leading a British Academy Small Grant Project (2022-2023) that works further with Colombian migrant women in Chile to express their migration stories through the creation of arpilleras (appliquéd, embroidered wall-hangings) and accompanying testimonies. This project is supported by the Chilean Servicio Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural and aims to develop feminist, decolonial methodologies for addressing migration and violence.

 

Expertise Details

Migration; Citizenship; Borders; Feminist Geography; Political Geography; Multi-Sited Ethnography; Arts-based methods