Dr Agathe Faure

Agathe’s current research focuses on changing patterns of migration amongst Latin American Indigenous groups. Agathe is mainly interested in examining how recent multicultural policies have inflected these patterns and the impact they have on Indigenous egalitarian practices, gender relations and emotional experiences. Her doctoral thesis resulted from twenty months of fieldwork in Colombia with Emberá Dobidá women who had recently migrated from Indigenous territories of the Chocó to the slums of the city of Medellín. It aimed to grasp how and why these women are stretched between their growing desires for social mobility in the city and their long-standing roles in preserving Emberá egalitarianism in territories. To do so, the thesis analysed the gestures of attention Emberá women endeavour to sustain and develop in urban/rural kin networks and showed how they bear the mark of social conflict, in the spiritual attacks and spells directed against them or in the dramatic increase of suicides amongst them.

Drawing on these findings, the book manuscript will contribute to key anthropological debates by deepening and contextualising the relation between egalitarianism and migration and reinforcing scholarly attention to changing gendered and class relations amongst egalitarian groups. It will also inscribe itself in a broader literature on Indigenous urbanisation, aiming to grasp the reality of Indigenous daily lives in cities. As such, the book will target two sets of audience: social scientists and policymakers who are increasingly interested in understanding the growing phenomenon of Indigenous urbanisation and students who are learning important academic discussions on egalitarianism in economic anthropology.

Since 2020, Agathe has taught a range of core and specialist courses, from anthropological theory to economic anthropology. Agathe has also taught for the LSE Summer School, and worked as a study adviser for LSE LIFE and research supervisor for LSE GROUPS. Alongside a PhD in Anthropology from the LSE, Agathe holds a BSc from Sciences Po Paris, a MSc in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and an MRes in Anthropology from University College London. Her doctoral research has been funded by the ESRC and has been awarded a number of prizes, including the Rosemary Firth Award and Firth Prize.

Expertise

Indigenous groups of Lowland South America; migration and mobility; economic anthropology; kinship and gender; emotion; body and personhood