UPS professor wins prize for the best thesis in Social Sciences in Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, México.

 

The thesis written by UPS professor Maria Fernanda Solorzano, as a requirement for the Masters in Social Sciences focused on Sustainable Development, was declared the best 2013 Masters in Social Sciences thesis by Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) in Monterrey, México.

 

Her thesis is titled “Social representations of development in the socio-environmental conflict of Wirikuta” ("Representaciones sociales del desarrollo en el conflicto socio ambiental de Wirikuta"). Her two year research is on the mining conflict in Wirikuta, located in the state of San Luis, Mexico. From an ethnographic perspective it considers the social representations of development and the well-being of two of the main groups involved in the conflict: the Wixarika people (huicholes) and the people from the Catorce municipality.

 

Maria Fernanda Solorzano has done her research in the Children, Adolescents and Youth Research Center (CINAJ, in Spanish) at UPS since August 2013. Here she coordinates research on families, a solidarity based economy, childhood, and the youth’s participation in politics. She is currently working on a peer reviewed paper.