Laura Mendoza Sandoval is a Ph.D candidate in Sociology and Political Science at Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence. Her research is now focusing on food movements embedded in the planetary urbanization processes with a particular interest in the agroecology movements from a feminist and decolonial perspective.

She completed her undergraduate studies in Anthropology at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogotá with an emphasis in anthropology of health and encountered the branch of urban anthropology during her exchange experience in the FFLCH of Universidade de São Paulo. After a period of working with an NGO that does researches and consultancies in sustainable urban development in several cities of Colombia, she developed some collaborative and independent art projects/interventions that touched upon themes such as urbanization of capital, gentrification, imaginaries, urban collective memories and urban sensorial/political experiences.

In 2017 she moved to Stuttgart, Germany to pursue a master in Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design. During her stay at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, she developed her master research linking food movements with urban studies. Through a critical ethnographic approach she studied the role of urban-based food initiatives in the food sovereignty and sustainability in the Metropolitan Area of Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Research interests: social movements, food sovereignty, urban political ecology, prefigurative politics, ethnographic research, decolonial turn