Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Bolivian scholar and activist, receives the 2023 Ester Boserup Prize

Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui is a Latin American sociologist and historian whose work includes critiques of Western epistemologies, colonialism, imperialism, and the use of the term ‘decolonial.’

Rivera Cusicanqui is the author of several important works including Oppressed but Not Defeated: Peasant Struggles Among the Aymara and Quechua in Bolicia, 1900-1980 (1984); Borders of Coca: Colonial Epistemologies and Alternative Circuits of the Coca Leaf (2003); and Ch’xinakax Utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization (2020). In addition to Rivera Cusicanqui’s scholarly work, she is an activist in the cocoa grower’s movement and the Katarista movement, seeking to recover the political identity of the Aymara people in Bolivia.

“With this award, we want to honour the decades of hard and important work that Professor Rivera Cusicanqui has done for scholarship and social justice for the indigenous populations of Latin America. These are incredibly difficult areas to challenge and change. Professor Rivera Cusicanqui has a remarkable dedication for putting science to use in political practice, and for putting politics to use in scientific practice. We want to recognize that with this year’s Ester Boserup Prize,” says Professor Christian Lund, Department of Food and Resource Economics and member of the Ester Boserup Prize Committee.

The award ceremony is open for all, and it takes place on April 27, 14.00-16.00 at Festauditoriet, Bülowsvej 17, Frederiksberg C.

We hope to see you there!

Yours sincerely,

The Ester Boserup Prize Committee