COPAL College Tour Hosted by LUCHA
For the third year in a row, LUCHA is excited to host COPAL’s (Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action) College Tour! COPAL College Tours feature presentations by global climate leaders.
LUCHA is honored to welcome Professor Simón Uribe from Colombia as our speaker. Professor Uribe is a documentary filmmaker and researcher affiliated with the faculty of Political Science at Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá.
Tuesday, October 6 from 1–3 p.m. in H.1002
The topic of this year’s College Tour is After the Torrent: Displacement, Urban Vulnerability, and Resilience in the Colombian Amazon.
What Professor Uribe’s talk will cover:
In March 2017, a devastating debris flow struck Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo in the Colombian Amazon, destroying large parts of the city and causing hundreds of deaths. Yet this tragedy was not an isolated event. It reveals a broader story common to many cities across the Global South, where urbanization is shaped by forced migration, violent conflicts in rural territories, state neglect, growing environmental threats linked to climate change, and deep social vulnerability.
Drawing on the case of Mocoa, this presentation examines how disaster risk is produced through the intersection of political, social, and environmental processes. At the same time, Mocoa is also a story of displaced populations struggling to build dignified lives in precarious urban conditions. The challenges that environmental and political crises pose for society and academia, and the need to imagine more just, sustainable, and risk-resilient cities are reflected in the program.
Professor Simón Uribe Bio:
Professor Uribe holds an M.A. in Human Geography and a Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the London School of Economics (LSE). His work has been supported by prestigious fellowships, including the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, the Wenner-Gren Foundation (Ethnographic Film), the British Council, and Proimágenes Colombia.
He is also the director of the feature-length documentary films Suspension (2019) and Grounded (2025), both screened at multiple international film festivals.