Research
I am a postcolonial and feminist urban scholar with an interest in investigating the present-day entanglements of postcolonial remains, uneven development, and urbanization in the inconspicuous places of the global South.
My academic journey has been driven by a curiosity to unpack the complex dynamics of inequality and capitalism, emphasizing everyday life while considering global processes. A central research interest of mine is to interrogate the socio-spatial manifestations of hidden types of urbanization and to expose their present-day entanglements with colonial legacies, environmental inequalities, and racializing practices.
I am the author of Producing Mayaland: Colonial Legacies, Urbanization, and the Unfolding of Global Capitalism (2023) and have published widely on the production of space and its intersections with global commodity chains, infrastructure-led development models, and smart urbanism.
Selected publications
Fonseca Alfaro C (2026) The digitalizing para-state: epistemic violence and the messiness of everyday life in Tequila, Mexico. Urban Geography: 1–21
Fonseca Alfaro C (2025) The Maya Train: Infrastructure and Racial Capitalism in Southeast Mexico. Antipode. 57(1): 96-119.
Fonseca Alfaro C (2024) Contours of Racial Capitalism, Urban Geography, and Infrastructure. Geography Compass 18(9).
Fonseca Alfaro C (2023) Producing Mayaland: Colonial Legacies, Urbanization, and the Unfolding of Global Capitalism, Hoboken: Wiley.