Jessica Coyotecatl Contreras

PhD Student
Anthropology
UCSB

Specialization

Infrastructure; Feminist Political Ecology; Green Markets; Energy Justice; Space Production
 

Education

Jéssica Malinalli Coyotecatl Contreras is a Ph.D. student in the Anthropology Department at UCSB. She has a B.A. degree in Cultural Anthropology from Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (Mexico 2011), and a M.A. degree in Social Anthropology from El Colegio de Michoacan (Mexico 2013).

Bio

Jéssica also has taken part in research projects in Mexico and in the USA related to development, inequality, and resources, such as "Cuyama Water Census, 2018". She has also collaborated with grassroots organizations focused on rural-urban relations, right to the city, and feminism.

Research

 

Jéssica Malinalli's doctoral dissertation project addresses infrastructures, space production, indigenous territories, and energy justice in Northwest Mexico. This research focuses on the suspension of the Sonora Gas Pipeline and the direct and legal actions the state, private companies, and Yaqui people have made to claim the territory.  This disrupted pipeline, intended for underground transportation of natural gas for electricity production in Northwestern Mexico, offers insight on (1) global infrastructure as a material entity that unevenly rearranges livelihoods and environmental markets, and (2) people’s notions and actions regarding politics and territories within energy transitions.

Jéssica has taken part in research projects in Mexico and in the USA related to development, inequality, and resources.  She was a graduate researcher on the "Cuyama Water Census, 2018". She has also collaborated with grassroots organizations focused on rural-urban relations, right to the city, and feminism.  She iscurrently a Mellon Sawyer Fellow in the Energy Justice in Global Perspective Seminar (2018-2019) at UCSB http://www.global.ucsb.edu/energyjustice/