The California Center is hosted by University of California—Los Angeles (UCLA). Located on the premises of the Latin American Institute (Bunche Hall), Rubén Hernandez Léon, director of the Latin American Institute is the local referent. This partnership allowed for the organization of the conference "Pathway for Cooperation and Research in the Americas" which marked the inauguration of the Center in early 2015.
Discover in 180 seconds the thesis of Alexandre PIRES, coordinator of the California center (2022-2025) PhD student at the Université Paris Cité (ED 624)
PhD dissertation topic : “Billboards, representations of female bodies and production of Los Angeles’s space. Analyzing the dialectical interrelationship between the logics of construction of stereotyped female bodies and the logics of production of socio-spatial injustices in Los Angeles." under the direction of Renaud LE GOIX and Pauline GUINARD
Combining cultural geography and gender studies, Alexandre Pires' research focuses on the urban space of Los Angeles as a structure and a platform for the commodification of female bodies. For decades, the Hollywood audiovisual and film industry has been shaping female beauty standards and stereotypes, which are then displayed in Los Angeles’s public space through billboards. By conducting a study of Los Angeles’s billboards, the coordinator of the California center questions how advertising female bodies reveals, reinforces, transforms and sometimes debunks the social, economic, racial and political inequalities that structure the city.
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