Itza Amanda Varela Huerta

Itza Amanda Varela Huerta is associate professor and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Mexico Xochimilco, in the Department of Education. Between 2020 and 2023 she taught at the Center for Gender Studies at El Colegio de México. Between 2018 and 2020 she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social in the city of Oaxaca. She collaborated professionally as an editor and reporter at the Mexican newspaper La Jornada from 2005 to 2012 and at the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center as a communication strategist for human rights.  Her research focuses on various forms of racism, black-Afro-Mexican political processes, feminisms, cultural studies and postcolonial criticism.  She is a member of Conacyt's National System of Researchers. Among her most recent publications are “Género, racialización y representación: apuntes para el análisis de productos audiovisuales en el México contemporáneo” (2022, Revista Estudios Sociológicos, Colmex), “Mujeres y movimiento negro afromexicano a través de la historia de vida” (2021, Revista Estudos Feministas) and the book Tiempo de Diablos: Usos del pasado y de la cultura en el proceso de construcción étnica de los pueblos negros-afromexicanos (CIESAS, 2023). She is currently researching the relationship between audiovisual products, gender and racism in contemporary Mexico, specifically in Mexican soap operas and films made by indigenous and black-Afro-Mexican women.