Thomas Grisaffi received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Manchester in 2009. Thomas has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Chapare Province, Bolivia. His research interests include community radio, the illegal cocaine trade, social movements, citizenship and democracy. Thomas's doctoral thesis, 'Radio Soberanía: The Sovereign Voice of the Bolivian Cocalero', examines the political assent of Bolivia's coca leaf producers and their use of community owned radio. At the heart of the thesis is the story of how union leaders and media producers operate radio with the aim to enhance the unity, solidarity, and organization of the coca growers' union. The second line of enquiry that runs throughout the thesis deals with the coca union's mutation into a governing political party and the impact that this has had on the management and broadcast content of union owned radio. The central question that the thesis deals with is; how do small media shape concepts and practices of the public sphere?
Thomas has taught a number of courses at the LSE and also at the University of Manchester.
Thomas is co-organizing an international conference which will be held at the Institute for the Study of the Americas in February 2012. See http://americas.sas.ac.uk/events/eventdetails.html?id=10784|
Selected publications
Grisaffi, T (2010) 'We are Originarios… We Just Aren't From Here': Coca Leaf and Identity Politics in the Chapare, Bolivia. Bulletin of Latin American Research 29 (4) 425-439
Grisaffi, T (2010) Review of Coca's Gone: Of Might and Right in the Huallaga Post-Boom. By Richard Kernaghan, Journal of Latin American Studies 42 (3) 619-621