Virginia García-Acosta is a social anthropologist (BA and Master) and historian (PhD) from Mexico. Since 1974, she has been a teacher and researcher at CIESAS (Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology) in Mexico City and was the General Director from 2004 to 2014. She has published over 100 articles and book chapters, either as a single author or as a coordinator, as well as 24 books in Mexico, the USA, Europe, South America, and China. She has also been Principle Investigator and Co-Principle Investigator for several research projects funded by Mexican and international entities. Her research relates to food history and disaster and risk from a historical-anthropological perspective, and her research interests center around earthquakes and agricultural disasters (hurricanes, floods, droughts, hailstorms, etc.) in Mexican and Latin-American history.
RCC Research Project: Disaster Risk Reduction, Prevention, and Resilience: A Global Comparison
Selected Publications:
- Historia y Desastres en América Latina [History and disasters in Latin America]. 3 vols. Bogota, Lima, Mexico: LA RED, 1996–2008.
- Los sismos en la historia de México [Earthquakes in Mexican history]. 2 vols. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica/UNAM/CIESAS, 1996–2001. (With G. Suárez)
- Miradas concurrentes: La Antropología en el diálogo interdisciplinario [Concurrent looks: anthropology in interdisciplinary dialogue]. Mexico: CIESAS, 2013. (With G. de la Peña)
- "Le risque comme construction sociale et la construction sociale des risques." Regions & Cohesion 1, no. 2 (2011): 297–318.
- "De la construction sociale du risque à la construction sociale de la prévention: les deux faces de Janus." In Terres (dés)humanisées: Ressources et climat, edited by Charlotte Bréda, Mélanie Chaplier, Julie Hermesse, and Emmanuelle Piccoli, 237–318. Geneva: Academia-L’Harmattan, 2014.
- "Historical Perspectives in Risk and Disaster Anthropology: Methodological Approaches." In Understanding and Reducing Disaster Risk, edited by B. Wisner, J. C. Gaillard and I. Kelman. PAIS: Routledge, forthcoming.