Maria Elena Bedoya Hidalgo

Maria Elena Bedoya Hidalgo is an Honorary Research Associate in Modern Languages and Cultures, specializing in cultural history and historical curating. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate on the AHRC-funded project Comics and Race in Latin America, led by Dr. James Scorer and Prof. Peter Wade. She also lectures on the MA in Museums and Heritage at Universidad de las Américas de Quito (UASB).

Education: PhD in Culture and Society (Latin American History) from the University of Barcelona (2012–2016) and MA in Latin American Studies from Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Quito (2004–2006). Her research focuses on cultural history, public history, museums, and visuality in Latin America. She has curated exhibitions in Ecuador and Spain, co-edited books such as Comunidades digitales, museos e historia pública: experiencias en torno a América Latina (2023) and Antigüedades y nación (2020), and published articles on art institutions and museum history.

Key projects include curating an online exhibition on comics and race in Latin America and participating in anti-racism workshops with artists in Peru, Argentina, and Colombia. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Public History and Archiveros sin Fronteras, Ecuador.

Her work bridges academia and public engagement, emphasizing critical approaches to cultural heritage and decolonial perspectives. She contributes to global inequality studies through interdisciplinary research on visual and material culture.