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Assistant professor in Indigenous Knowledges

Cross-appointed to the School of Environmental Studies.

Affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program of Cultural Studies.

BA Hons (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú), MA & PhD (Université Laval), Postdoc (McGill University).

Theological Hall 403
613.533.6000, ext. 74244
j.legoas@queensu.ca

Curriculum Vitae (PDF 300.8KB)

Research and Focus

Jorge Legoas works in the central Andes (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia). He was trained in anthropology and sustainability in Peru (PUCP), Switzerland (International Academy of the Environment), and Canada (Laval & McGill). His work focuses on the ontological and religious dimensions of Indigenous people’s relation to their environments, with particular attention to how they enact culturally rooted epistemologies of the many human and nonhuman agents inhabiting their worlds — especially lands, mountains, rivers, and the weather.

Professor Legoas is currently the principal investigator for two SSHRC-funded projects: (1) “Loving and Knowing the St Lawrence River: Indigenous Knowledges for the Rights of Nature”, Partnership Engagement Grant 2024-26, # 892-2024-1019); and (2) “Indigenous Weather Forecasting between Divination and Planning”, Insight Development Grant 2022-25, # 430-2022-00664. He also works on social exclusion, the discourses of postcolonial development, and Indigenous citizenship and belonging. Prior to working in academia, he has been the director of several NGOs and a development consultant among Indigenous authorities and government actors in the Andes.

Accepting graduate students (in RELS, ENSC and CUST) pursuing research in the following areas or approaches: Indigenous cosmologies and practices. Climate knowledge and wildfires. Ethnoclimatology and weather forecasting. Traditional knowledge and relation to the land, mountains and water. Anthropology of nature and anthropology of religion. Indigenous environmental governance. Traditional wisdoms and shaman-like practices. Environmental knowledges in school learning. Indigenous citizenship and social exclusion. Sustainability and postcolonial development. Performance, rationality, and ritual. Ethnography, discourse analysis, Actor-Network Theory and STS.

Courses

• RELS 342 - Indigeneity and Nature.
• RELS 842 - Indigenous epistemologies of nature.
• RELS 806/301 – Understanding Rituals.
• RELS 809 - Things and Beings in Indigenous Ontologies.
• RELS 401 – Honours Seminar.
• RELS 257 – Indigenous Sages and Wisdoms (on shamanism).
• RELS 242 - Objects and Materiality in Indigenous Worlds.
• RELS 227 - Indigenous Traditions.

Previous courses:

• ANT 2521 – Theories in anthropology (U. of Ottawa)
• ANT 3890 – Andean nature-cultures (Trent U.)
• ANT 3800 - Community and development (Trent U.)
• POL 704 – Theories of culture (U Central)
• SOC 403 – Qualitative research (U Central)
• SOC 2683 – Sociology of Indigenous peoples (U. of Quebec)
• ES 1310 – PhD seminar: Ethnographic research (U. Andina)
• DEV 6063 – Theories of development (U. of Quebec)
• DEV 1053 – Interculturality and development (U. of Quebec)