Fitxa persona

Monique Leivas Vargas holds a PhD in Local Development and International Cooperation from the Univeristat Politècnica de València (UPV) in 2022, an Official Master's Degree in Development Cooperation from the UPV - Specialisation in Project Management and Development Processes (2015-2017), a Degree in Sociology from the Universitat de València (UV) in 2015, a Diploma in Integration Policies, Advice and Provision of Services to Immigrants from the UV (2011) and a Higher Technician in Social Integration (2008-2010).

She is an assistant lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Valencia. She is a collaborating lecturer in the Master in Development Cooperation (UPV), in the Postgraduate in Innovation for Social and Environmental Transformation of the Universitat Politècnica de València and in the Diploma of Specialisation in Promotion of Citizen Participation of the Universitat de València. She teaches contents directly related to the different paradigms of social research and transformative participatory methodologies that contribute to justice and epistemic liberation in university-society relations, such as participatory video, social mapping, photovoice, collective mapping, among others. She is an expert in educational innovation projects and co-production of knowledge with different social actors and educational institutions at primary, secondary and university level. Some experiences to highlight: ‘From the Body to the City: rethinking our territories from collective research with social mapping’ and Learning in Action developed within the framework of the Master's Degree in Development Cooperation at the UPV.

She is also a collaborating researcher at the INGENIO Institute (CSIC-UPV) from 2015 to date with the collective social innovation team. She started doing her curricular and extracurricular internships in Sociology in the framework of the project ‘Toma Social: creating videos for change’ and, subsequently, she was a Type B Collaboration grant holder for R&D&I activities in the framework of the ADSIDEO Programme (2015) and in the project ‘New Perspectives for rethinking climate change from grassroots social innovation: approach from human development, learning and citizenship (2016-2017)’ funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación). In the last five years, while developing her doctoral thesis, she participated in different research projects, being hired in the framework of the project ‘Digital social innovation for a participatory, sustainable and inclusive smart city’ funded by the State Research Agency (2021) and in the co-design study of the Engaged Citizen Audit mechanism provided to the Generalitat Valenciana (2022). She is also a researcher in the Multibien Network funded by Cyted.

Her areas of expertise are: citizen participation; transformative participatory methodologies; engaged citizen audit; educational innovation; participatory action research; epistemic justice in higher education and in processes of knowledge co-production between university and society; critical and liberating university extension; education for critical global citizenship; just and eco-social transitions; glocal development and international cooperation.

In these areas she has published articles in scientific journals and book chapters in prestigious national and international publishing houses; she has participated in local, national and international research projects; she has participated as a collaborating researcher in three agreements between the Generalitat Valenciana and the INGENIO Institute (CSIC-UPV) co-designing the mechanism of committed citizen audit and facilitating two pilot projects to evaluate public services and policies at the autonomous level; and she regularly carries out training, dissemination and scientific dissemination activities together with social organisations, universities and public institutions in the Global North and South.

She has carried out internships at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNA), the Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia (UdeA), the University of the Free State in South Africa (UFS) and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil.