Catalina Agudin is currently a doctoral candidate in the SINTA program of the Walter Benjamin Kolleg at the University of Bern. She got a Doc.CH SNF financing (09.2021—01.2025). She is enrolled at the Institute of Social Anthropology at this University and she is part of the Institute of Design Research, at the Bern University of Applied Sciences.
Her research project, entitled “Revaluation of Wichi traditions: Applying Anthropological and Design methods in a participatory project within an Argentinian aboriginal community”, is focused on the material and immaterial analysis of the production of handicrafts of the Wichi group. The combination of ethnographical and design methods, such as participant observation, biographical interviews, video documentation, and cultural probes, are be the base of the data collection. In addition, a participatory project with Wichi artisans and design students of the University of Buenos Aires will take place in the field. Thus, her work provides a useful link between the Social Anthropology and the Design, as well as it promotes research collaborations by exchanges between research experts from Switzerland and Argentina. Agudin’s supervisors are Prof. Dr. Heinzpeter Znoj from the Institute of Social Anthropology, and Dr. Minou Afzali, who is researcher at the Institute Design Research (HKB) and lecturer at the MA Design in the field of Social Design.
This project is founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Key words
- Wichi Handicraft
- Participatory Projects
- Argentinian Ethnicity
- Decolonialist Practices
- Social Design
- Design Research
