From Object of Analysis to Social Analyst: Intercultural University Students in Veracruz, Mexico

• In Event: Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Postcolonial Analysis on Cultural Tensions and Power in Global Education

Abstract

This paper explores the unfolding of a bold new attempt in Mexican higher education to reframe historically unequal differences between persons of indigenous descent and the dominant mestizo majority. Intercultural education was adopted to address questions of political, historical and cultural asymmetry between indigenous and mestizo persons. Specifically within higher education – and couched in the language of “regional sustainability” and “cultural betterment” – Intercultural Universities (ICUs) were created to transcend the assimilationist policies and practices of indigenismo, the defining of national identity in relation to the presence of indigenous populations. Specifically, this paper argues that UVI students are re-casting hegemonic notions of culture, identity, and diversity in that they are no longer the object of analysis but the social analyst.

Author

• Francisco Ramos, Indiana University - Bloomington