Dr Rafael Shimabukuro

PhD thesis

Captured Desires: Neoliberalism from Below in Fujimori’s Peru

My doctoral thesis examined neoliberalism from below in 1990s Peru. Against common academic and activist narratives which focus exclusively on repression, I argued the neoliberal turn, in Peru as elsewhere, cannot be properly understood without examining neoliberalism from below, the variegated processes through which the working classes (re)produce neoliberalism. I made this case through in-depth analysis of fujimorismo, the local articulation of neoliberalism which arose in Peru during Alberto Fujimori’s rule (1990-2000).

After the PhD

Since finishing my PhD, I have begun working as a Research Associate in the Centre of Development Studies and the Centre of Latin American Studies at Cambridge, researching the history of area studies in the University.