Sergio Miranda Hayes, Fall 2016-2017 President Néstor Kirchner Fellow from Bolivia, successfully completed his two-week stay in New York

November 19^th, 2016 · The New School · New York

Within the framework of the President Nestor Kirchner (PNK) Fellowship sponsored by the Observatory on Latin America (OLA) and the Universidad Nacional de San Martin (UNSAM) in Argentina, Sergio Miranda Hayes, from Bolivia, successfully completed a two-week academic exchange at The New School in New York.

Sergio Miranda Hayes holds a Master’s Degree in Governance and Human Rights from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a Masters in Law from the Central European University in Budapest. He has worked in the Constitutional Court of Bolivia and with the University of Francisco Xavier in Bolivia. He currently works as a pro bono lawyer for indigenous organizations.

His research is a comparative study of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia’s unique constitutional systems recognizing indigenous rights and legal pluralism, that counter a Western-dominated knowledge environment.

As part of his activities, Sergio presented the results of his extensive research on a Seminar attended by faculty and graduate students from different Colleges of The New School. Key to the activities of the Fellowship, he met individually with academics from The New School as well as from renowned institutions such as the University of Columbia, the New York University and the City University of New York. In addition he gave a Public Lecture open to the a vast and diverse audience of New York.

Seminars with The New School Community

Sergio was required to present his work during one closed-door seminar with New School faculty and students, who were asked to read the Fellow’s research in order to provide feedback. This exchange is an opportunity for the Fellow to receive detailed comments on his ongoing research but also to introduce his topic to a diverse academic audience.

During the seminar, Sergio presented his comparative study and the methodologies he used to review the efforts of countries having a significant indigenous population towards attaining social inclusion via new constitutional models.

Sergio’s seminar took place on November 9th 2016, and was attended by New School Professors Gabriel Vignoli, Fabiola Berdiel, Michael Cohen and Margarita Gutman, in addition to more than twelve PhD and graduate students from the New School interested in his topic.

Interviews and Visits in New York

Sergio spent most of his time attending individual meetings with law experts, experts on constitutional studies, and on South American and post-colonial studies who were greatly interested on the uniqueness of his topic. Professors and researchers encouraged Sergio to present his topic among their students as it was an opportunity for them to hear first–hand the challenges of applying a new and defying constitutional order.

He met with New School Provost, Tim Marshall, as well as New School professors Cynthia Lawson, Erika Kohl-Arenas, Jonathan Bach, Mindy Fullilove, Terri Gordon and David Plotke.

He also had the opportunity to meet with experts of the Human Rights Clinic from Columbia University School of law, Sarah Knuckey, Rahma Hussein, Shawn Watts and Benjamin Hoffman; in addition, he met with John L. Hammond from Hunter College at CUNY and Arlene Davila from NYU.

Public Lecture at the Orozco Room

Sergio attracted a great deal of attention inside and outside our community. Sergio’s professional experience includes working and defending indigenous communities and groups, thus applying the new constitutional framework and aspect that gives him great advantage and knowledge in terms of understanding the challenges and advantages that the constitutional system has.

The culmination of his visit was his final presentation during the Fall 2016 Public Lecture titled “Fighting for Social Justice in Latin America” which took place on November 16th 2016 at The New School’s Orozco Room. He was introduced by H.E. Ambassador Sacha Llorenti Soliz from the Mission of Bolivia to the United Nations. For more information about the public lecture, the presentation and comments click here.

+ View/download Sergio’s slideshow presentation (pdf 3.94 MB)