Leandro Rodriguez Medina
I was born in Argentina, but I've been living in Mexico for more than 10 years. I studied political science, epistemology, philosophy of technology and sociology. My research interests are the international circulation of knowledge, the materiality of socio-political processes, and higher education in Latin America. I'm a member of CONACYT's National System of Researcher and of the Cambridge team of the EU-funded research project "International Cooperation in the Social Sciences and Humanities".
Subjects: Philosophy, Sociology
Biography
I studied Political Science (University of Belgrano, 2001), Epistemology and History of Science (UNTREF, 2005) in Argentina, before leaving the country to work under Don Ihde's supervision at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where I got a MA in Philosophy (2004). Later, I got a PhD from University of Cambridge (2010) and a position at the Department of International Relations and Political Science at the University of the Americas Puebla (Mexico). Since 2011, I'm a member of CONACYT's National System of Researcher (SNI). Between 2011 and 2014 I was a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). In 2014 I co-chaired the 4S Annual Meeting which took place in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Between 2010 and 2014 I was UDLAP's representative to The Puentes Consortium, a group of six Mexican and U.S. universities that supports research on topics of bi-national interest. I have also participated in political campaigns as consultant in Argentina and Mexico.Education
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PhD in Sociology, University of Cambridge, UK, 2010
MA in Epistemology, UNTREF, Arg., 2005
MA in Philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook, US, 2004
Lic in Political Science, Univ. of Belgrano, Arg., 2001
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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I've interested in the international circulation of ideas, with a focus on academic knowledge. Since I was a Bachelor student in Argentina, I've been amazed by the use of foreign theories to understand local realities, especially in Latin America. Because of that, I've been doing research on how political scientists in Argentine use foreign knowledge to structure their scholarly careers and more recently I studied how Niklas Luhmann's systems theory was introduced in Hispanic America. Now, I'm working in two different (but somewhat related) projects: (a) the internationalization of Mexican social sciences and (b) the desconnection between social sciences and architecture in Mexico although the former has witnessed a 'spatial turn' and the later has been crucial to shap local public spaces.
Personal Interests
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I love travelling and my wife, daughter and I really enjoy knowing different places around the world. I also like movies and books so much that I couldn't see my life without libraries and movie theatres. For me, it's important that my students understand the social and political reality of Mexico, its inequalities and wonders, its challenges and opportunities. That's why I always try to teach beyond the classroom, getting students involved in projects with NGOs and the public sector. I'm also interested in non-textual forms of knowledge production, so I often require students to think of their work as social scientists entangled with new technologies. The result is that they usually produce fantastic pieces of multi-media works that literally blow my mind.
Last, but not least, I enjoy a lot to spend time with my 5-year old daughter, Sofia, who has transformed my world in the last years. She is the guarantee that regardless the difficulties of the day, I will end it with a huge smile on my face.
Books
Articles
Construyendo periferia: un microanálisis de objetos subordinantes...
Published: Sep 01, 2014 by Revista Sociológica
Authors: Leandro Rodriguez Medina
Subjects:
Sociology
El presente artículo explora de qué manera los textos que llegan desde los centros a las periferias, siguiendo un esquema de división internacional del trabajo académico, contribuyen a estructurar los campos menos institucionalizados.
Objetos subordinantes: la tecnología epistémica...
Published: Jan 01, 2014 by Revista Mexicana de Sociología
Authors: Leandro Rodriguez Medina
Subjects:
Sociology
El presente artículo, derivado de investigaciones cualitativas y documentales sobre trayectorias académicas e influencia teórica, introduce el concepto de “objeto subordinante” para comprender la apropiación en campos periféricos de conocimiento producido en los centros metropolitanos.
Photos
News
Research project on Mexican cities under evaluation by CONACYT
By: Leandro Rodriguez Medina
Subjects: Media and Cultural Studies, Media, Journalism and Communications
Co-ordinated by Prof. Marianne Marchand, a group of scholars from UDLAP, COLEF, BUAP, TEC de Monterrey and UPAEP of which I'm a member, has submitted a research project to the Mexican Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONACYT).
In this project, titled “El Reposicionamiento Nacional y Global de Ciudades Mexicanas ante Problemas Transnacionales: Energía, Medio Ambiente, Migración, Seguridad Ciudadana y Cultura”, my colleage Alberto López Cuenca and I will analyze how public policies on culture at city/local level are conceived of, especially by authorities, as an instrument to (re)shape the urban space, reconfiguring social relationships, and redifining who are included and who are excluded. Our focus will be public policies on culture in Puebla, Tijuana and Monterrey.
The project went through phase I of evaluation and now will be reviewed by peers in order to grant funds.
For info about this project: [email protected]
Videos
Published: Oct 13, 2012
In this expo, students from high school come to UDLAP to know more about the undergraduate programs. In this case, I was in charge of organizing and coordinating a workshop on elections using software.