About us

We are TREES, an initiative of the University of the Andes that unites research, teaching and outreach to understand inequalities inequalities in all their complexity. We seek to study them in a broad manner -in its social, economic, political, cultural and environmental dimensions, political, cultural and environmental dimensions-. and to do so from the contexts where they manifest themselves most strongly most strongly: the countries of the South, especially Latin America.

Milestones

  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Outreach
2022

November

Creation of TREES

June

EPE Network Meeting Santa Fe

October

EPE Network Meeting Cairo

2023

May

Research Grant Fund I Call for Proposals

Creation of the TREES visual identity

June

Creation of the Community of Practice (CoP)

August

First CoP Knowledge Dialogue

Launching of the first pedagogical teaching resources

September

Launching of social networks

First Territorial Dialogue on Inequality - Cali

October

Care Congress

November

The Washington Consensus

Territorial Dialogue Medellín

2024

January

Grant Fund II Call for Proposals

First predoctoral fellow

February

Community of Practice Meeting

Launching of the first Café with TREES

Barranquilla Territorial Dialogue

March

Visit CMPR Community of Practice

April

Grant Fund III Call for Proposals

Community of Practice Meeting

Bucaramanga Territorial Dialogue

May

Master City Meeting

Territorial Dialogue Florence

June

Summer Institute

EPE Network Meeting Mexico

TREES 2024 Challenge

July

First CEDE - TREES document published

Complexity Global School 2024

August

First pedagogical laboratory

Villavicencio Territorial Dialogue

September

Grant Fund I Workshop

PEGS Conference Cairo

Launching of the TREES Sheets Newsletter

Last Territorial Dialogue on Inequality - Bogota

October

Session TREES Congress Economics

Student Congress Cali

Corona Foundation Meeting

Teaching at COP-16

Vox Pop Ugly Betty the Ugly

November

LATAM Triad Inequities Congress

Second CEDE-TREES document published

Teaching Initiatives Meeting

December

ECINEQ PRAEM TREES Session

2025

January

Course Doing Economics 2

February

Welcome Advisory Committee

First students sent for international study abroad

March

Cinema and Inequality Course

April

Special focus on education and social cohesion

May

Grant Fund II Workshop

First Module of face-to-face teaching

Education and Social Cohesion Forum

June

London Global Meeting

Soacha Community of Practice Event

July

Doctoral Dissertation Camp

Complexity Global School 2025

Special Environmental Justice

August

First e-learning module

September

Whither Meritocracy?

Launching of TREES

October

AI, Ethics, and Society Conference - AIES

Triad Congress Violence and (in)security in Latin America

Third and fourth CEDE-TREES documents issued

November

Second meeting with the Advisory Committee

Fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth CEDE-TREES documents issued

Closing Interdepartmental TREES Challenge 2025

Our name, Teaching and Researching Equitable Economics from the South, sums up our essence: an initiative that connects knowledge, education and dissemination to generate real improvements in the way we understand and address inequalities in Latin America.

How to generates change

Transforming reality requires changing the thinking that sustains it.

Starting point: understanding

The inequalities in Latin America are historical and structural. They are not limited to income: they affect education, health, political representation and opportunities. political representation and opportunities.

In contexts of distrust and polarization, it is not enough to create new programs or isolated policies. programs or isolated policies. We must transform how we understand inequalities.

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The TREES approach

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Addressing inequalities from the perspective of knowledge

To counteract the implications of inequalities, the work must advance in several dimensions, all guided and informed by rigorous knowledge.

To this end, TREES works in three interrelated areas:

Research

Reveals the root causes and consequences of inequality.

Teaching

Wear these apprenticeships to the classroom, from school to university.

Outreach

Translates the evidence in accessible public conversations.

These three areas allow better understand the origin of inequalities, their costs for society as a whole, and contribute to changing the way the problem is perceived.

What TREES does differently

Connecting disciplines, territories and perspectives.

Talking about inequalities can arouse conflicting positions and criticisms are an opportunity for dialogue. and criticism is an opportunity for dialogue.

In this process, TREES also plays a hinge role between the global south and the global north. global north: connects contexts, disciplines and perspectives so that knowledge circulates in both directions and is nourished by the diversity of experiences.

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What TREES intervenes

The system that produces the ideas, narratives, and conceptual frameworks through which inequalities are inequalities are understood, taught and discussed.. Thus:

  • Conditions are created to promote more informed public policies.
  • Private practices that expand opportunities are promoted.
  • Structural gaps are reduced.

The change TREES seeks

Increased collective capacity to address inequalities

  • When you strengthen the research, teaching and outreach, changes the understanding of inequalities.
  • When the understanding, changes the way in which the problem is perceived and discusses the problem.
  • When the public conversation, conditions are created for better decisions, policies and practices.

And when decisions change, real possibilities for social transformation open up.

Meet the team

Founders and management

Leopoldo Fergusson

Leopold Ferguson

Research Leader & Co-Founder

He is a full professor of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes and holds a PhD in Economics from MIT. Economics at MIT. His work is located at the intersection between economics, politics, development and economic history political economy, development and economic history, with an emphasis on institutions, conflict, fiscal policy, media and inequality.

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Paula Jaramillo

Paula Jaramillo

Teaching Leader

She is an associate professor of economics at the Universidad de los Andes and a PhD in economics from the University of Rochester. Economics at the University of Rochester. Her research focuses on microeconomics, game theory and market design, axiomatic resource allocation and matching theory. of resources and matching theory.

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Juan Camilo Cárdenas

Juan Camilo Cardenas

Outreach Leader | Co-Founder

He is a full professor of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes and holds a PhD in Environmental and Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on collective action, cooperation, and institutional design to solve social dilemmas in an equitable and sustainable way, combining to solve social dilemmas in equitable and sustainable ways, combining laboratory and field experiments with laboratory and field experiments with work in communities and public policy spaces. and public policy spaces.

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Jimena Hurtado

Jimena Hurtado

Co-founder

She is a tenured professor at the School of Economics and Vice Rector of Research and Creation at the Research and Creation of the Universidad de los Andes. She is an economist and political scientist from this university, with a master's degree in Economics and in Economic Epistemology from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. and in Economic Epistemology from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and PhD in Economics from the University of Paris X Nanterre.

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General Coordination

Silvia Mongelós

Silvia Mongelós

General Coordinator of TREES

She holds a degree in International Relations and a master's degree in Economics from UNAM, with additional training in international cooperation and development. She has more than ten years of experience in program management and implementation in Latin America, especially in education, environment and institutional strengthening. in Latin America, especially in education, environment and institutional strengthening.

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Teaching Team

Sara Serrano

Sara Serrano

Teaching Coordinator

She is an economist and holds a Master's degree in Economics from the Universidad de los Andes. She is a professor of Pensando Problemas at the Universidad de los Andes and was a complementary professor of Game Theory at the same university. was a complementary professor of Game Theory at the same university. She works at the National Administrative Department of Statistics in the poverty and inequality team. poverty and inequality team. She has participated in different volunteer programs that promote equity in different equity in different educational contexts.

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Andrés Bautista

Andres Bautista

Community of Practice Coordinator

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Education with emphasis in Humanities and a Ph. D. in Education from the Universidad de los Andes. During his doctorate research on the role of communities of practice in the development of pedagogical practices. development of pedagogical practices.

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Communications and Outreach Team

Angie Bautista Silva

Angie Bautista Silva

Communications Coordinator

She is a social communicator and journalist, and holds a master's degree in journalism from the Universidad de los Andes. Universidad de los Andes. She has ten years of experience in the design and implementation of communication strategies that translate complex research into complex research into clear and accessible narratives.

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María Camila Lozano Rivas

María Camila Lozano Rivas

TREES Designer

She is a designer from the Universidad de los Andes and is responsible for the visual development of TREES. development of TREES. She leads the creation of graphic pieces, digital products and multimedia digital products and multimedia formats that translate research and teaching into clear, coherent and research and teaching into clear, coherent and accessible visual experiences.

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Interested in what we do?

Supports or collaborates with TREES.

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