Miel Paek

Hi! I am Miel, a graduate student at St Hugh’s College reading for the MSc in Latin American Studies. I hold a BA in History and Politics of the Americas from UCL, where I developed a particular interest in postcolonial approaches to Latin American political thought. My undergraduate studies introduced me to bottom-up perspectives in the region through modules on the Cuban Revolution, International Relations of the Americas and Geopolitics, focusing on the U.S.–Latin American hemispheric dynamics, particularly through the 20th century. These studies shaped my understanding of resistance, dependency, and epistemic marginalisation in the region. My undergraduate dissertation focused on the textile artworks produced by marginalised Chilean women during the Pinochet dictatorship, named arpilleras, as politically charged artefacts that negotiate grief, resistance and the importance of memory politics within and beyond Chile. I explored how these works illuminate broader questions of affective politics and the epistemic authority of creative expression and dissident forms of protest. Through the MSc, I hope to further explore the intersection between political art, collective memory, and feminist thought in Latin America, situating cultural production as a vital form of political and historical testimony.