Ales & Ideas Presents: Framing Women and Animals- Multispecies Care and Photography Tourism in Cusco, Peru with CCC Instructor Amanda Daniela Cortez, PhD

Join Clatsop Community College at Fort George Brewery Lovell Room on Thursday, December 2nd at 7 p.m. for the Ales & Ideas Lecture Series.

“Una foto? A picture?” calls out a woman with a lamb in her arms and an alpaca next to her. The woman is Cristiana, who offers a passing tourist the chance to take her photograph, as she feeds the lamb milk from a bottle she prepared. Cristiana works in an informal tourism economy in Cusco, Perú. Selling photograph opportunities to tourists has allowed her to find work outside of the home while caring for her animal companions and kin. In laboring alongside one another, Cristiana and her animals care for one another. Yet her work has been made illegal by municipal ordinance, which claims that photography tourism works abuse animals and dirty the city. Police officers who enforce the ordinance claim that they, not photography tourism workers, care for the animals and thus must put an end to photography tourism work. Cristiana’s story is just one example of the fascinating research presented at this month’s Ales & Ideas.  Come meet Dr. Amanda Daniela Cortez; travel to the Andes with an anthropologist to explore multispecies care practices and the way those care practices are weaponized against Indigenous women. This First Thursday lecture includes a slide presentation and opportunity for Q&A from the audience. All are welcome.   

Clatsop Community College is pleased to follow Fort George’s lead in returning to LIVE audiences for this year’s Thursday Night Talks. An audience cap of 50 will be enforced, to include physically distanced seating.  Face coverings are required, except while actively eating or drinking.  Doors open at 6pm, with food, ales, and other beverages available; no purchase necessary. Minors are welcome at this FREE event.  This event will also stream live on Facebook LIVE at 7pm. https://www.facebook.com/FortGeorgeBrewery.  No log-in/membership required.

Dr. Amanda Daniela Cortez is CCC’s newest full-time faculty hire, a social sciences instructor at Clatsop Community College since September 2021. Using the social sciences as a means for creating a more inclusive and just world, Amanda teaches classes in anthropology, sociology, and women’s studies. She completed her PhD in anthropology at the University of Notre Dame where she explored questions related to gender, indigeneity, and multispecies relations with Quechua women and their animal companions and kin in Cusco, Perú. After her graduate studies, she held a postdoctoral research associate position at the University of Connecticut joining a multidisciplinary team to investigate the ethics of studying Indigenous North American ancient DNA. Amanda has published in The Journal of Social Archaeology, and Anthropology News, and has contributed several book chapters to edited volumes. Raised in the Pacific Northwest.  She is thrilled to join CCC’s faculty and get to know the Astoria community.