Skip to main content
 

Friday Award supports creative research in the Ecuadorian Amazon


October 21, 2024 | Ruby Wang

Friday Award supports creative research in the Ecuadorian Amazon
original photograph courtesy of Gabriela Valdivia and Valeria Orozco

A recipient of a William C. Friday Arts and Humanities Research Award from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities and Honors Carolina, Gabriela Valdivia (FFP ’15, ALP ’22) is focusing on the changes taking place on the banks of the vibrant Hollin River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Friday Award is an opportunity for undergraduate students to assist former Faculty Fellows or Academic Leadership Fellows in their current research projects. 

Gabriela Valdivia has had a reverence for rocks since she was a child in Peru. 

Whenever her father returned from business trips searching for rocks that showed promise of commercially viable oil, he shared the rocks he discovered, the maps he drew and the stories of the people he met. 

“Rocks tell such detailed, beautiful stories about the world,” said Valdivia, Class of 1989/William C. Friday Distinguished Professor and director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas. 

That fascination led to a career. Prior to earning a doctorate in geography from the University of Minnesota, Valdivia completed an M.A. at Carolina. As a graduate research assistant, she was sent to the Ecuadorian Amazon to translate the research projects underway there. 

“That’s where my story as an Amazonianist begins. That’s where I learned about my privilege as a researcher and the difference it makes to ask the local people if they would be interested in a study instead of telling them I’m doing a study,” she said. “It flipped the script for me, and I’ve been asking this question ever since.” 

Brenda Palacios Rodriguez, Fredy Grefa, Alexis Mamallacta and David Mamallacta on the Hollin River (Top). Youth create a map for the Napo Runa Cartographies Initiative (Bottom).
courtesy of Gabriela Valdivia and Valeria Orozco

Valdivia is a political ecologist in the department of geography and environment. She examines the effects of governing and transforming Latin America’s natural resources on local cultural and ecological communities. 

Her team is examining the impact of the booming construction industry on the resources and communities along the river. 

Last December, several team members stayed with a family in the province of Napo to learn about the river — its history, resources and spaces that are vital to the people who live there. The indigenous landscape is shifting as land adjacent to the river is acquired for roads or development, she said. 

“Through the stories of the river, we learned how the policies of nation, community and municipality overlap with the ongoing rock and sand mining for the construction industry,” Valdivia said. 

Valdivia’s research team includes Fredy Grefa, a native of Napo who earned his Ph.D. in geography at Carolina and teaches at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito; UNC geography professor Javier Arce-Nazario; graduate student Ina Shkurti; and three Honors Carolina students who also received Friday Research Awards — Valeria Orozco, Brenda Palacios Rodriguez and Ana Zurita Posas.

For Valdivia, collaborating with her student researchers was a highlight of the trip. All three had taken her recent COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) course, designed to foster learning between students at UNC and other countries. 

“I love going to the Amazon because it challenges my way of thinking,” Valdivia said. “These students were extremely creative in trying new ideas, and they really enhanced my love for this kind of research. Besides, they were so much fun!” 

The next application cycle for the Friday Award will launch in January 2025.  

Original story by Patty Courtright (B.A. ’75, M.A. ’83), Carolina Arts & Sciences Magazine 


Categories: Featured News Content, News

Comments are closed.