Dr Rebecca Jarman | Principal Investigator
Rebecca is associate professor of Latin American studies at the University of Leeds. She was born in Montgomeryshire and was raised on the Severn Estuary. She has spent much of her adult life in the Andes. Her research is situated at the intersections between culture and history in contemporary Latin America, and examines the forces, aspirations, and tensions that forge places, communities, and shared imaginaries in postcolonial and decolonial environments.
Find out more about her work here.
Dr. Victoria Vargas Downing | Engagement Fellow
Victoria is a Chilean art historian and heritage researcher based in the UK. She has participated in art projects in Chile, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles CA, Vienna, the UK and Belgrade. She is coordinator of the ECRN of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies and chair of the Ventana Conference on decolonisation. She is interested in the relationship between contemporary art and heritage from decolonial perspectives.
Daniel Ceballos | Research Assistant
Daniel was born in the Andean town of Pregonero, in the Venezuelan state of Táchira that borders with Colombia. He obtained his MA in Ethnology from the Universidad de los Andes (Venezuela) in 2015, where he specialised in Andean ethnohistory. He worked in the rural state of Mérida as a teacher for almost a decade, before settling in the United Kingdom. He has collaborated with Moving Mountains since its inception in 2017.
Ashlie Espinoza | Junior Researcher
Ashlie was born in Lima in 2001. Her maternal family comes from the department of Ancash, which is why she was interested in being part of this project. She is currently a final-year student of Communication and Journalism at the UPC. She enjoys telling and revealing stories that can contribute to the improvement of society, promote positive changes and help those whose voices are rarely heard. In the future, she would like to travel around Peru and the world to get to know other cultures and to be able to tell stories that have an impact.
Valeria Flores | Junior Researcher
Valeria is twenty-one years old and was born in Huacho, in the Norte Chico of Peru. She has been passionate about research and writing since she was a child. She moved to Lima when she was seventeen to study Journalism at the UPC thanks to the National Scholarship Programme (PRONABEC).
Tamara Ojeda Tarrillo | Junior Researcher
Tamara was born in Lima and studies Communication and Journalism at UPC. She is passionate about discovering other cultures and learning new languages. In the future, she hopes to tell stories like the ones she is uncovering in Yungay so that her peers can know more about their history.
Daniella Sofia Paredes Johnson | Junior Researcher
Daniella was born in Lima but has lived most of her life in Arequipa. She is a student of Communication and Journalism at the UPC. She aspires to travel the world and tell stories. Her hobbies are reading poetry and chronicles. In the future, she hopes to be a writer.
Marlon Pierr Reyes Cárdenas | Junior Researcher
Marlon was born in Lima. He is a student of Communication and Journalism at the UPC. He hopes to be able to travel around the world to tell stories from his country and around the world. His favourite hobbies are reading, listening to music and appreciating nature. In the future, he hopes to become a journalist dedicated to reporting.
Jeff Edwards MBE |Advisor
Jeff is a survivor of the Aberfan Disaster of 1966. Educated at the University of London and Cardiff Business School he is an accountant by profession and has held Board appointments in the Public, Private and voluntary sectors.
As a former Councillor, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Leader and Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil Council, Jeff has actively been involved in community and physical regeneration following post-industrial decline. He was awarded an MBE for Community regeneration in 2003.
Jeff has been a Magistrate for 32 years, was High Sheriff of Mid Glamorgan in 2021/22 and is currently a Deputy Lord Lieutenant.
Aurea Granados | Advisor
Aurea was born in Yungay, Áncash, Perú and is a survivor of the 1970 Yungay Disaster. She is a qualified secondary teacher and the former headteacher of Santo Domingo de Guzmán and Santa Fe de Tumpa, where she was awarded a national prize for pedagogical innovation. One of her proudest achievements is having secured funding to take her students on an all-expenses trip to Cusco. She has three children and six grandchildren.
Anthony Oliver-Smith | Advisor
Anthony is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Florida. In 2013, he was awarded the Bronislaw Malinowski Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Applied Anthropology for his work in disaster research and displacement and resettlement research. His current research focuses on the intersection of climate change, natural hazards, disasters, displacement and planned resettlement.
Steve Parry | Advisor
Steve is an Independent Consulting Engineering Geologist with over 40 years’ experience worldwide, much of it evaluating landslide hazard and risk. He is a member of the European Federation of Geologists Panel of Experts on Natural Hazards and Climate Change. He is co-author of UK guidelines for the evaluation of landslide hazard and risk.
Simon Popple | Academic Mentor
Simon Popple is the academic lead for the Digital Creativity and Cultures Hub at the University of Leeds and Senior Lecturer in Photography and Digital Culture. His research is focussed on the co-production of digital tools which allow communities and organisations to develop independent access to cultural and historical resources as a means of communication, storytelling, and social advocacy. He is currently a Co-I on the AHRC Congruence Engine project responsible for the digital translation of archival resources and tools for community partners.