Delcia Orona
1997. Western Colorado. Based in Geneva, Switzerland. Artist-researcher working at the intersection of social science and contemporary art.
Concept
Research-based artistic practice
ethnography, nervous-system writing, epistemic disobedience, fantastic/speculative non-fiction writing, decolonial theory, more-than-human relations
Mediums
film, photography, collage, writing, installation
Education
2022-2024
MFA Critical Curatorial Cybermedia, HEAD - Genève
2020-2022
MA Anthropology and Sociology, the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID)
2016-2020
BA Anthropology (minor Linguistics), University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB)
• University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP)
• University College Utrecht (Year 2017-2018), Humanities - Funded by UCEAP Duttenhaver Scholarship
• UC Center Madrid (Summer 2018), Spanish Language and Culture
• UC Center Paris (Summer 2019), French Language and Culture, Food Politics
• Project Manager and Research Assistant - Cultivating Communities, Hoelle Culture & Environment Lab
• Project Coordinator and Research Assistant - The Eco Vista Project, Faculty Research Assistance Program (FRAP)
Installations and works
an essay on spikey things flying at my face (film 6’30, text, wood)
Grand Tour Installation (Master CCC Critical Curatorial Cybermedia), HEAD - Genève
22.06.2024
a search for
Exposition MIXED FEELINGS
Live In Your Head exposition space
21 - 29.06.2024
a perspective of my working mother: an ethnography of sorts
Exposition Just in time
Live In Your Head exposition space
16.11 - 16.12.2023
an archive of a place that no longer exists
Jury Installation (Master CCC Critical Curatorial Cybermedia), HEAD - Genève
17.01.2024
Publications
In Convulsion: Tracing Collective Memory via Archives, Material Witnesses and Stories from the Body
Thesis Master CCC Critical Curatorial Cybermedia, HEAD - Genève
April 2024, Geneva
What can contemporary art (and research) do in the time of planetary crisis?
SEARCCCH publication, Master CCC Critical Curatorial Cybermedia
February 2024, Geneva
Research papers (unpublished) and other written works
The International Organization for Planetary Unity: Spirituality and Alternative Diplomacy in Geneva, Switzerland
Thesis Master Anthropology and Sociology, Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Food Politics and Ethnography: Oral Histories and ‘Story-Telling’ in Building a Picture of Local Food Networks in Rural Colorado Communities
Thesis Bachelor Anthropology, University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Funded by the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) Grant
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Carvalho, Beatriz, Paola Granados, Coralía Sáenz Tinoco, Delcia Orona. Gender, Sexuality, and the Carceral (Life Behind Bars: Comparative Perspectives on Carcerality, January 2022)
How can we achieve global food security? The case of agricultural colonization in Palestine (Global Food Systems from a Legal Perspective, December 2021)
“Humanitarian of the Year”: Thomson Safaris in Tanzania (Humanitarian Adventures, December 2021)
Activism at the Institute: A Reflexive Ethnography of Engaged Anthropology, Social Activism, and Negotiating Position in the Field (Ethnographic Fieldwork, June 2021)
Literature review: materiality in post-2015 environmental anthropology (Social Theory II: Critical Epistemologies, June 2021)
Mediating boundaries: human-environment interactions within urban city parks (Environment and Society, June 2021)
The art of noticing houseplants and onions (Environment and Society, May 2021)
Reckonings and revisions: reflections of the visual (Urban Visualities, April 2021)
Karippal, Anu, Cihangir Can, Delcia Orona, Olivia Yanchik. Representations of Queer Syrian Migrants in Media. (Visual Archives of Violence, January 2021).
Silicone as mediator and container: how menstrual cups and breast pumps are reimagining, or recapturing, how we understand and negotiate reproductive bodies and reproductive politics (Anthropological Perspectives on Reproductive Politics in the 21st Century, January 2020)
A Day in the Life of an Isla Vista Student ft. Sustainable Food Practices (Supervisor Dr. John Foran, Eco Vista, March 2020)
“American cuisine”: the materiality of food and identity creation in media representations (December 2019)
Delivery services and food trucks in Paris, France (July 2019)
The social meaning of food and culinary practices (July 2019)
Food Politics and Locality: from the Heart of France to Rural Colorado (May 2019)
Research Design: Cultural Pluralism at Fort Ross, California (April 2019)
Responses to Spanish Colonization: Native American Acts of Resistence, 1769-1825 (ANTH 131CA, March 2019)
Intercultural Communication: Monsoon Wedding (Under professor Dr. Curtin, March 2019)
Colonial Discourses and Representation (December 2018)
Kafka and Murakami: A Comparative Analysis of the Human Condition (November 2018)
Jones, Madeline and Delcia Orona. Creating home away from home: a material analysis of the exchange student experience (Materiality of Culture, University College Utrecht, May 2018)
State Maintenance of National Identity (April 2018)
Conservation Discourse: African Wildlife Foundation AWF and Enduimet Wildlife Management Area WMA (University College Utrecht, April 2018)
Time-Space Compression and Inequality (University College Utrecht, March 2018)
Syntactic Differences Between Archaic and Modern Dutch Genitive (University College Utrecht, December 2017)
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