You are here:



Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Collecting Shadows: Viewing the World through a Child’s Lens  

Speaker: Sasha Flatau (LSE) 

With the ethnographic setting of an indigenous community in the Colombian Amazon, this presentation is not only about the children who live there and how they see the world, but also the way in which they share their world with adults, interpreting and reiterating the things they hear and observe for one another’s curiosity and entertainment. In their native language, Cacua, the phrase ‘taking photos’ literally means collecting shadows or souls. Despite this eerie  translation, there was great enthusiasm from the children when I introduced cameras into our weekly activity sessions during my fieldwork in their community. As the weeks went on, as well as being an activity that the children clearly enjoyed, ‘collecting shadows’ was also a way for them to express where they felt safe and happy in the community and where they did not. Later, making short videos gave them the opportunity to narrate anecdotes about things that had happened in these different places. Their stories and perceptive comments during these sessions often brought my attention to points that I may otherwise have overlooked, especially regarding the shadows of communal living.


Seminar Programme

Autumn Term 2021
28 October 2021 (Inaugural session) 
11 November 2021  
25 November 2021  
9 December 2021 
 
Winter Term 2022  
3 February 2022  
17 February 2022  
3 March 2022  
17 March 2022 


All are welcome to attend this free seminar, which starts at 17:00 GMT

For more information about the seminar and future sessions, you can visit our blog. You can also Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive seminar updates. 

Download guidance on participating in an online event (pdf)

Please consider supporting CLACS's mission to train the next generation of scholars in Latin American and Caribbean Studies: https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/research-centres/centre-latin-american-and-caribbean-studies-clacs/support-clacs