Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Contentious Belonging: Video Production and Indigenous Participation within the Bolivian State

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In this project, the researcher will analyze the production and circulation of indigenous videos in Bolivia to understand how indigenous people organize politically and develop their expectations of the Bolivian state. In the highly contested arena of Bolivian politics, videos produced by native people bring attention to what they see as relevant, necessary, possible, imaginable, or desirable. This research builds on recent anthropology about the limitations of resistance in the context of class, gender and race, by looking at the state through local political and cultural practices. In twelve months of ethnographic work, the researcher will analyze how indigenous visual media contribute to imagining different relationships to the Bolivian state. The research will include examining the history of indigenous video production in Bolivia and its relationship to the history of indigenous movements; participant observation of video production and circulation; interviews with producers, trainers and audiences; and visual analyses of videos. One important focus of this work will be on political language in both documentary and fictional videos, noting how indigenous media makers situate themselves in relation to national culture and the state. This research adds to academic and political efforts to understand the historical conditions of underrepresented groups and to strengthen their visibility. In addition to the normal scholarly outlets, the researcher plans two main forms of broadly disseminating the results: (1) a workshop with indigenous communicators; and (2) an interactive cd-rom with extracts of the research process and results for public dissemination in both Spanish and English.