GSWS Certificate Student Presents Doctoral Research at Public Panel in Buenos Aires, Argentina

María Lis Baiocchi, a GSWS doctoral certificate student from the Department of Anthropology, was an invited speaker at a public panel on Migration and Care Work in Argentina, where on October 30th 2018 she presented a paper entitled "Affective Capital and Labor Rights of Migrant Domestic Workers." The panel was organized by the Study Group on Migration, Family, and Public Policy (MiFaPP) of the Gino Germani Research Institute (IIGG) of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, where María Lis is a scholar-in-residence under the mentorship of Dr Carolina Rosas, who co-directs the MiFaPP together with Dr Sandra Gil Araujo. 

María Lis’ presentation took place within the context of her doctoral research project, “Becoming Workers: Changes in Labor Law and Domestic Workers’ Challenges in Buenos Aires, Argentina,” which, standing at the intersection of feminist, economic, and legal anthropology, examines the reconstruction of domestic workers’ legal status from “servants” to “workers” and its implications for domestic workers’ lives in Argentina, which since 2013 is one of a minority of countries to guarantee equal rights for domestic workers. Based on ethnographic research in Buenos Aires, her dissertation examines how the changing discourses and practices of contract promoted by the Argentine state interact with the non-contractual discourses and practices that have historically regulated relationships between workers and employers, promoted exploitative conditions of work, and entrenched cultures of patronage and servitude.