Miguel Rojas Sotelo, Program Coord

Miguel Rojas-Sotelo works at the intersection of critical human geography, ethnic studies, visual anthropology, environmental and health humanities and cultural theory. As scholar, filmmaker, visual artist, and media activist he studies how communities of color (indigenous and migrants) and natural spaces are shaped by modernity and how they mobilize to adapt and resist. He is particularly interested in how such people(s) articulate their archival knowledge, racial and class politics, the spatiality of those processes, and how they are manifest in the landscape via visual, audiovisual, oral, and textual narratives. 

Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, is a doctor (PhD) in Visual Studies, Contemporary Art, and Cultural Theory; with a M.A in Modern and Contemporary Art (U. Pittsburgh) and MFA on Visual Arts (U. de los Andes, 1995). His bachelor's degree is in visual arts with sub-major in History and Philosophy.
Miguel was the Colombian Ministry of Culture first Visual Arts Director (1997-2001), where he worked building participatory cultural policy. Miguel has worked independently as film maker, curator, author, and critic ever since. 

His areas of interest are: environmental visual humanities, health humanities, intercultural visualities, contemporary art and subaltern studies, the global south and decolonial aesthetics. 
Currently works and teaches at the Duke University Center for International and Global Studies and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (is also affiliated with the Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies with UNC Chapel Hill). Miguel was visiting faculty at Duke Kunshan University at the International Master in Environmental Policy (IMEP) and the undergraduate program. Miguel is a fellow Nicholas School of the Environment fellow.  

Miguel is founder of Water Towns Environmental Film and Arts Festival . 环保电影艺术节(China), and director of  the NC Latin American Film and New Media Festival (USA). At Duke-UNC consortium Miguel coordinates interdisciplinary working groups, directs the Hemispheric Indigeneity project, co-directs and co-leads the Working Group on Environmental Humanities: Narrating Nature at Duke University, also is affiliated to the Health Humanities Lab.
Miguel won the 2017-2018 National Prize in Art and Essay Criticism for his essay Soberanía Visual (Visual Sovereignty) awarded by the Colombian Ministry of Culture and Los Andes University. In 2017 also published his book IRRUPCIONES | COMPRESIONES | CONTRAVENCIONES about cultural policy in Colombia. In 2018 Miguel was co-president of EILA V (Continental Encounter of Indigenous Arts and Literatures), held in Bogota, Colombia (May 2018). In late 2018 Miguel published his latest book BE PATIENT | SE PACIENTE. Artistic and medical entanglements in the work of Libia Posada.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	2204 Erwin Road, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	+1 919 681 3883
Email Address:
Web Pages:	https://www.mingasdelaimagen.org/ https://humanitiesfutures.org/groups/working-group-environment/

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• ENVIRON 982.01, DEL: SUSTAINABLE DEV COLOMBI Synopsis

  Online ON, Tu 08:00 PM-09:30 PM

• ENVIRON 315S.01, ENVIRON. ISSUES & THE DOC ARTS Synopsis

  LSRC A156, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

  (also cross-listed as CINE 315S.01, DOCST 315S.01, LATAMER 315S.01, VMS 309S.01)

Office Hours:

Tuesdays and Thursdays 9-11am
133 John Hope Franklin Center.
2204 Erwin Road
Duke University
Durham.

Keywords:

Art and natural history • Arts • Civic Engagement • Cultural policy • Culture • Documentary films • Documentary films--History and criticism • Environmental Humanities • Environmental justice • Environmental policy--Case studies • Knowledge, Theory of • Latin America • Latin American literature--20th century--History and criticism • Migration • Motion picture film • Rural-urban migration • Service learning • Visual anthropology

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Fernández, AM; Rojas Sotelo, M, Manifesting democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, vol. 47 no. 3 (September, 2022), pp. 337-345, Informa UK Limited [doi]
2. Rojas Sotelo, M; Quintana Porras, L, Sobre la primera y la última línea. Los vencidos de la historia y sus luchas por abrir el porvenir (Colombia, paro nacional, 2021), Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, vol. 47 no. 3 (September, 2022), pp. 346-368, Informa UK Limited [doi]
3. Rojas-Sotelo, ML, NO FUTURE: The Colonial Gaze, Tales of Return in Recent Latin American Film, Humanities, vol. 11 no. 2 (March, 2022), pp. 45-45, MDPI AG [doi]  [abs]
4. Rojas-Sotelo, M, Iconoclastia, justicia indígena, historia y memoria. Actos de fabulación y soberanía, Estudios Artísticos, vol. 8 no. 12 (January, 2022), pp. 20-47, Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas [doi]  [abs]
5. Rojas Sotelo, M, Adelante el pasado: oralidad y visualidad, acto y evento en la prácticas artísticas del mundo indígena contemporáneo, Revista Kaypunku: Estudios Interdisciplinarios de Arte y Cultura, vol. Volumen 4 no. Número. 1 (June, 2019), pp. 521-591, Revista Kaypunku  [abs]