Cristian Felipe Roa Pilar

• Presentation

My PhD project titled Mennonites and their search of fertile land: fire, soy wealth and political power in Bolivia focuses on understanding the involvement of Mennonites in processes of fire, deforestation and land use change in lowland Bolivia, and by doing so, also asks to what extent their involvement can be said to have effects on political processes at the local, regional and national level. 

Based on an in-depth ethnography, the research explores Mennonite's meanings of fire, including ontologies of land within the context of Mennonite colonization of forest areas and indigenous territories. The research project seeks to contribute to debates about the political effects of fire, Mennonite cosmologies and reflections upon new potential settler-colonization dynamics.