Academic Group

Professor Alejandra Toscana Aparicio holds a Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. in Geography from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). As a research professor affiliated with the Department of Politics and Culture at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), Xochimilco Campus, she teaches in the Divisional Trunk of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Master's program in Sustainable Societies, the Rural Development postgraduate program, and the Ph.D. program in Social Sciences. Additionally, she is involved in research at the College of Geography and the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM. She is a level II member of the National System of Researchers.

The main focus of her research revolves around socio-environmental risks and disasters, complex processes involving a multitude of variables of various types. This includes the vulnerability conditions of affected populations and communities, dangerous phenomena, social perception of risk, economic, political, electoral, and cultural consequences of disasters, as well as preventive and mitigation strategies and measures, and emergency response. Topics such as natural and anthropogenic hazardous phenomena, housing, land use, public policies, irregular settlements, poverty, and marginalization are directly related to the research theme.

Some specific case studies address disasters triggered by hurricanes Paulina, Stan, Wilma, Ingrid, and Manuel; floods in San Mateo Atenco and Valle de Chalco Solidaridad; the tornado in Pueblo Nuevo; droughts in the Papaloapan River basin; earthquakes in 1985 and 2017 and the reconstruction processes; slope processes in Toluca; disasters associated with mining in Cerro de San Pedro, Tlalpujahua, and Cananea; the ABC daycare fire; and the risk perception associated with the cultivation of transgenic corn in Oaxaca. These investigations have contributed to understanding risk-disaster processes from a social sciences perspective and enriching perspectives such as spatial justice, environmental justice, the right to the city, and political ecology. Other topics of interest include tourism and the indigent population, both from a spatial dimension.