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Staff Profile

Dr Nick Morgan

Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies; Director of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

  • Email: nicholas.morgan@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7480
  • Address: Dr. Nick Morgan,
    Spanish, Portuguese and Latin America Studies,
    Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
    Old Library Building,
    Newcastle University,
    NE1 7RU
Background

Introduction

I arrived at Newcastle in September 2007 from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, where I worked in the area of cultural studies. My research initially focused on the politics of cultural representation in Colombia, Venezuela and Panamá, and has included work on nationalism, class, race and ethnicity, participatory democracy and the media. Much of this was done from the perspective of discourse analysis but in recent years I have focused on ethnography, taking part in interdisciplinary projects involving historians, anthropologists, sociologists, film scholars and political analysts. My current focus has two main strands: the representation of conflict in the social imaginary and community participation in local politics and its impact on policy making. I have a particular interest in the use of documentary filmmaking as part of the research process.

During my time at Newcastle I have been degree programme director for Modern Languages and Management and director of the MA in Latin American Interdisciplinary Studies.

I am currently the subject lead for Language Based Area Studies for the Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Programme (NINEDTP) https://www.ninedtp.ac.uk/ and acting Director of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

 

Research

Research Interests

Participatory democracy in Colombia, Venezuela and Panama; Critical Development Studies; Nationalism in Colombia; Representations of race, class and gender in Colombia; Cultural studies in Colombia, Venezuela and Panama; History of Colombia

Other Expertise

Critical Theory; Social Theory; Narrative Theory

Current Work

I am currently Co-Investigator, coordinating the Colombian part of the AHRC funded project, Screening Violence: A Transnational Study of Conflict and Post-conflict Imaginaries  https://research.ncl.ac.uk/screeningviolence/ 

I am also working with colleagues in the UK and Colombia in the development of a social franchising model for community development in Colombia's Pacific lowlands. I work with the Institute for Environmental Research on the Pacific (IIAP) in delivering training to grassroot community leaders in Colombia's Pacific coast, and am part of the Mesa Inter-Institucional sobre el Pacífico, which includes government ministries, regional universities and non-governmental organisations with a stake in local governance.

Research Projects and Funding

Screening Violence, A Transnational Study of Post-conflict Imaginaries. £960,000, Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK).

COLCIENCIAS/UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES (BOGOTA)
"Sobre la crisis de la democracia en Colombia: un estudio de los discursos de nación, estado y democracia en Colombia" (2005).
(15,000,000 COP)

Postgraduate Supervision

I am happy to supervise on a wide range of topics including Nationalism in Latin America; Participatory democracy and social movements; Race, class and ethnicity in Latin America; Political discourse analysis. These are not exclusive topics, however, and I have supervised candidates working on, amongst others

  • the consequences of the discursive positioning of child soldiers in the Colombian conflict
  • activism and the anti-austerity protests in Syntagma Square, Athens
  • tourism and the cultural transformation of the Chapada Diamantina in Brazil
  • regionalism and migration in the Chocó, Colombia
  • representations of violence in street art in Bogotá, Colombia
  • reassessing the urban transformation of Medellín, Colombia, from the perspective of gender
  • the politics of paradise in Pipa Brazil

Most of these candidates were funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, UK).

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

Introduction to Cultural Studies

Diversidad cultural en América latina

Cultura y política en Colombia


Publications