David Velázquez Seiferheld is a researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Villarrica del Espíritu Santo (UNVES, Paraguay) and an academic at the Paraguayan Academy of History. He is also a founding member of the Paraguayan Committee of Historical Sciences and the Argentine Society for Research and Teaching in the History of Education. Velázquez Seiferheld integrates networks and regional academic research groups on the issues of education and authoritarianism; school material culture; school history and heritage; history, education, and memory; and didactics of history and social sciences.
He has written Education and Authoritarianism in Paraguay (2015-2019) and Mbo’e: Introduction to the History of Paraguayan Education (2019). In 2019, he curated the first exhibition on the history of Paraguayan education, called Mbo’e: Educating in Paraguay since the first Republic. In 2020, he curated the first virtual exhibition of the history of Paraguayan education, named Mbo’e: Schools and Teachers in Times of Crisis. He is a board member of the civil society organization Enseña por Paraguay, part of the Teach for All network. In 2021, the Municipal Board of the city of Asunción (Paraguay) awarded him the Domingo Martínez de Irala Medal of Merit for his contributions to the fields of education and history.
Velázquez Seiferheld was an event speaker at the Dialogue.
This blog post consists of an interview with working group member Elvira Mendoza, director of the Rosedal Educational Institution in Colombia, and David Velázquez, researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Villarrica del Espíritu Santo in Paraguay.