Esther (Mayoko) Ortega

Professor Esther (Mayoko) Ortega received her Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science from the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. She holds an M.A. in Feminist Critical Theory and a Bachelor’s degree in History, with a specialty in Anthropology of America, both from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She teaches in the Tufts-Skidmore Spain program, where she is also the Coordinator of the Laboratory of Intersectional Anti-racist Pedagogies.  Ortega has also taught at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and in the Postgraduate Program in Science, Technology and Society at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), where she is also a researcher in the Science, Technology & Gender group at the Institute of Philosophy. Professor Ortega has also been a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS) in Graz, Austria, and with the Afro / Black Thought, Practices and Activisms Group (GPPAAN), associated to the MACBA (Museum of Art Contemporary of Barcelona). Currently, she is working on an artistic research residency on “Radical Black Thought” at the Matadero Center for Artistic Residencies (Madrid). 

A feminist-anti-racist and sexual dissidence activist, in recent years her activist work has been carried out through Conciencia Afro (Madrid), a space for the empowerment of the Afro community in the Spanish state. Her research and activist interests lie at the intersections of critical studies of race, gender, and sexuality; Queer-Feminist Theory and Social Studies of Science (STS / CTS).