Staff Profile

Lorenza is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in International Politics in the Politics Department. Prior to this, she was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow based at Newcastle University and Harvard University. Lorenza has also served as political analyst and researcher for the United Nations Development Programme and other international organisations. She has held visiting positions at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, France, at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, at the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and at the EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia.

Qualifications

• B.A. in Communication and Journalism, University of Torino, IT
• M.A. in International Relations, University of Bologna, IT
• Ph.D in Politics, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, IT 

Languages

• English (fluent)
• Spanish (fluent)
• French (fluent)
• Italian (mother tongue)

Google scholar: Click here.

My research interests include contentious politics and conflict studies, human rights and global justice, multicultural citizenship and resource governance, with a focus on the Global South and particularly Latin America. I have also worked on the post-2015 development agenda and the challenges of identifying new research priorities and foster participation especially from the Global South within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. My work is highly multidisciplinary, drawing from comparative politics and international relations, sociological approaches to collective action, and critical development theories.

Funding 

Principal Investigator ‘Playing with fire: Using forum theatre to investigate social conflict in the aftermath of the 2019 Bolivian wildland fires’ Urgency Award, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (£150,000) 2020/2021

Principal Investigator ‘The Determinants of Inter-communal Conflicts in Rural Bolivia: New Evidence with Quantitative Data’, Pioneer Award, Newcastle University Institute for Social Science (£5,000) 2020/2021

Postgraduate Supervision

I am happy to supervise students working in any of my research interests, in particular politics of international development, Latin American politics, human rights and social justice, social movements and identity politics.

PhD Students

Jocelyn Hickey "Exploring Epistemologies of Reading through an Engagement with Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand'"

POL3126 Latin American Politics 

POL3046 Dissertation in Politics 

• Fontana LB. Identity in Latin American Social Movements. In: Federico M. Rossi, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2023, pp.590-606.
• Fontana LB. Indigenous Protest in Bolivia against Evo Morales. In: Donatella della Porta, Doug McAdam, David Snow, ed. Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2021. In Press.
• Fontana LB. Recognition Politics: Indigenous Rights and Ethnic Conflict in the Andes. Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2023.
• Oldekop JA, Vang Rasmussen L, Agrawal A, Bebbington AJ, Meyfroidt P, Bengston DN, Blackman A, Brooks S, Davidson I, Davies P, Dinsi S, Fontana LB, Gumucio T, Kumar C, Kumar K, Moran C, Mwampamba T, Nasi N, Nilsson M, Pinedo-Vasquez MA, Rhemtulla JM, Sutherland WJ, Watkins C, Wilson SJ. Forest-linked Livelihoods in a Globalized World. Nature Plants 2020, 6, 1400-1407.
• Fontana LB. The Contentious Politics of Labour Rights as Human Rights: Lessons from the Implementation of Domestic Workers Rights in the Philippines. Human Rights Quarterly 2020, 42(4), 859-877.
• Fontana LB, Oldekop JA. The sustainable development goals: The bumpy road ahead. World Development 2020, 127, 104770.
• Fontana LB. Federico M Rossi,The Poor’s Struggle for Political Incorporation: The Piquetero Movement in Argentina, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2017; 314 pp.: ISBN 9781316273180. International Sociology 2019, 34(2), 187-190.
• Gregel J, Fontana LB. Human Rights and the Pink Tide in Latin America: Which Rights Matter?. Development and Change 2019, 50(3), 707-734.
• Fontana LB. Identity Policies of Education: Struggles for Inclusion and Exclusion in Peru and Colombia. Journal of Education Policy 2019, 34(3), 351-373.
• Giller KE, Drupady IM, Fontana LB, Oldekop JA. Editorial overview: The SDGs - Aspirations or inspirations for global sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2018, 34, A1-A2.
• Fontana LB, Grugel J. Deviant and Over-Compliance: The Domestic Politics of Child Labor in Bolivia and Argentina. Human Rights Quarterly 2017, 39(3), 631-656.
• Fontana LB. On the Margins of World Society: Working with impoverished, excluded & marginalised people. In: G. Crawford, L. Kruckenberg, N. Loubere, and R. Morgan, ed. Undertaking Global Development Research: Fieldwork Issues, Experiences and Reflections. Sage Publications Ltd, 2017.
• Fontana LB. Review of Risley, A. Civil Society Organizations, Advocacy, and Policy Making in Latin American Democracies (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Bulletin of Latin American Research 2017, 36(2), 262-263.
• Oldekop JA, Fontana LB, Grugel J, Roughton N, Adu-Ampong EA, Bird GK, Dorgan A, Vera Espinoza MA, Wallin S, Hammett D, Agbarakwe E, Agrawal A, Asylbekova N, Azkoul C, Bardsley C, Bebbington AJ, Carvalho S, Chopra D, Christopoulos S, Crewe E, Dop M-C, Fischer J, Gerretsen D, Glennie J, Gois W, Gondwe M, Harrison LA, Hujo K, Keen M, Laserna R, Miggiano L, Mistry S, Morgan RJ, Raftree LL, Rhind D, Rodrigues T, Roschnik S, Senkubuge F, Thornton I, Trace S, Ore T, Valdes RM, Vira B, Yeates N, Sutherland WJ. 100 key research questions for the post-2015 development agenda. Development Policy Review 2016, 34(1), 55-82.
• Grugel J, Nem Singh J, Fontana LB, Ulhin A, ed. Demanding Justice in the Global South: Claiming Rights. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
• Fontana LB, Grugel J. The politics of indigenous participation through “free prior informed consent”: Reflections from the Bolivian case. World Development 2016, 77, 249-261.
• Fontana LB. Fratricide Identities: The Land Conflict between Indigenous Leco and Peasant Unions in Apolo, Bolivia. Social Identities 2015, 21(3), 273-293.
• Fontana LB, Grugel J. To Eradicate or to Legalize? Child Labour Debates and ILO Convention 182 in Bolivia. Global Governance 2015, 21(1), 61-78.
• Fontana LB. À l'ombre de la reconnaissance : politiques identitaires et conflit social en Bolivie. Critique Internationale 2014, 64(7), 101-120.
• Fontana LB. Evo Morales at the Crossroads: Problematizing the Relationship between the State and Indigenous Movements in Bolivia. Iberoamericana. Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 2014, 43(1-2), 19-45.
• Fontana LB. Indigenous Peasant ‘Otherness’: Rural Identities and Political Processes in Bolivia. Bulletin of Latin American Research 2014, 33(4), 436-451.
• Fontana LB. Indigenous Peoples vs. Peasant Unions: Land Conflicts and Rural Movements in Plurinational Bolivia. Journal of Peasant Studies 2014, 41(3), 297-319.
• Fontana LB. The ‘Indigenous Native Peasant’ Trinity: Imagining a Plurinational Community in Evo Morales’s Bolivia. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2014, 32(3), 518-534.
• Fontana LB. Andean Ethno-cultural Politics and their Effects on Social Violence: Evidence and Hypothesis from the Bolivian Case. Journal of Peace, Conflict and Development 2013, 20, 20-37.
• Do Alto H, Fontana L. Conflicto social y reterritorialización: miradas cruzadas sobre movimientos rurales y regionalistas en Bolivia. Trace 2013, 63, 24-34.
• Fontana LB. On the Perils and Potentialities of the Revolution: Conflict Trends and Collective Action in Bolivia. Latin American Perspectives 2013, 40(3), 26-42.
• Fontana LB, Sparti D. Identità Indotte: l'uso politico del riconoscimento in Bolivia. Studi Culturali 2012, 9(2), 175-200.
• Calderón F, Fontana LB, Nava I, Pacheco H. La protesta social en América Latina. Siglo XXI; UNDP, 2012.
• Fontana LB. The "Proceso De Cambio" And The Seventh Year Crisis: Towards A Reconfiguration Of The Relationship Between State And Social Movements In Bolivia. Bolivian Studies Journal 2012, 19, 190-212.
• Fontana LB. Il MEND: L'ultima fase della guerra del Delta. Afriche e Orienti 2008, 2/2008, 161-174.