UIS professor and researcher Raquel Méndez Villamizar, attached to the School of Social Work, is doing her postdoctoral research stay at the Research Group on Sociocultural Issues GIPSc of the National University of Mar del Plata (UNMDP) Argentina, under the mentorship of Professor María Eugenia Hermida.
The main objective of this stay is to analyze how the episteme of the Same is related to the way in which the categories of care, body and affect are conceptualized in the different levels of the explicit, hidden and null curriculum of Social Work programs in ten universities in Argentina, Chile and Mexico.
“The research process began in Argentina, where four Social Work programs were selected based on the criterion of academic disciplinary influence in the last decade. Subsequently, I will carry out a similar process in Chile and Mexico,” said Méndez Villamizar.
This work is being carried out with the National University of La Plata, the National University of Rosario, the University of Buenos Aires and the National University of Entre Ríos.
“The research uses the multiple case study method, descriptive level from the qualitative approach and began in October 2024 and has a duration of two years. The methodology includes documentary review techniques, as well as focus groups and individual interviews with three key participants: students, graduates and teachers,” added the professor.
By the end of 2026, the results will be presented remotely to each program community. “We have assumed the ethical and political commitment to present the results at the end of the research, since we hope that the reflections constructed can be an input to provide feedback for social work training in Latin America,” said Méndez Villamizar.
The professor is a social worker from the UIS, she completed a master’s degree in Development Cooperation and Social Action at the International University of Andalusia (Spain) and her doctorate in Social Sciences was completed at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). For 25 years she has contributed to the consolidation of equitable and democratic relations in diverse socio-cultural contexts.
