About
What is the emancipatory potential of the sciences? Alejo's dissertation explores this question by recovering an underground history of artistic and political practices in Latin America that have taken up scientific ideas for their own emancipatory desires. It does so by uncovering two singular case studies: (1) the early 20th-century literary and political writings of José Carlos Mariátegui and the avant-garde magazine Amauta in Perú; (2) the late 20th-century communiques of Subcomandante Marcos (Galeano) and the artistic production of indigenous Zapatista communities of Southern México. These case studies provide a historical basis to elaborate a philosophical framework that rethinks the alliances between scientific practices and emancipatory political and artistic practices in Latin America and beyond.
While at the University of Michigan, Alejo has taught classes on Hispanic literature and film, introduction to astrophysics, as well as philosophy courses focused on science and technology. Alongside Gavin Arnall, he also coordinates the marxisms collective Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop (RIW) at the University of Michigan. He has written about Marx and the Latin American Marxist tradition, early modern philosophy (Spinoza and Hobbes), and contemporary continental philosophy (Althusser, Deleuze, and Derrida). In his previous life as an astrophysicist, his research focused on modified theories of gravity, cosmology, and galaxy clusters. Lastly, Alejo has also published translations of texts written by Verónica Gago, Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, Karen Barad, Brenna Bhandar, Alberto Toscano, and Mauricio Malamud.
His published translations and his writings on science, philosophy, and politics can be found on his Academia page linked above.
