Indication: Professor Andrés Zarankin – Department of Anthropology – Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences/UFMG
Period: September 18 to October 2, 2015
Professor Alfredo González-Ruibal is an archaeologist at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit) in Spain. His long trajectory and the quality of his research make him one of the most outstanding figures worldwide within the archeology of the recent past and his theoretical and methodological contributions are internationally recognized. His research is focused on the archeology of the contemporary past, more specifically, he works with the most obscure aspects of the 20th and 21st centuries: wars, failed development projects, colonialism, totalitarianism, among others. He is currently coordinating an archaeological project on the civil war and recent dictatorship (1936-1950) in Spain.
At the same time, he is also interested in the material strategies developed by communities that still resist (or have resisted until recent times) modernity, globalization and the state. In this regard, he has conducted research among non-modern societies in Ethiopia (2001-2010) and Brazil (2005-2008). Other themes worked on by him are related to cultural contact, domestic space, egalitarianism, economic and technological policies, among others.