Current Research Projects
Interconnected Violence: Life and Death at the Urban Margins in Peru
My first book manuscript examines how poor racialized women in marginalized urban neighbourhoods understand and respond to different forms of violence. I focus on how gender, racial, and class structures inform how communities and the state define violence and what strategies they develop to cope with it. I conducted 16 months of participant observation, 44 interviews with women and men of different ages, and 12 focus groups with 66 youth in Puerto Nuevo, a shantytown located in Callao, Peru’s second deadliest district. I also conducted 33 interviews with academics, activists, government workers, police officers, and politicians to understand how the state manages violence.
In my dissertation, I found that the boundary between public (e.g. crime) and private (e.g. domestic violence) forms of violence is blurry. Public violence enters the home and vice versa, transforming intimate relationships and women’s work within the family and neighbourhood. Studying the dynamics and politics of violence through racialized, poor women’s experiences shows the gendered, racial, and class nature of violence at the urban margins.
Project activities and publications:
In my dissertation, I found that the boundary between public (e.g. crime) and private (e.g. domestic violence) forms of violence is blurry. Public violence enters the home and vice versa, transforming intimate relationships and women’s work within the family and neighbourhood. Studying the dynamics and politics of violence through racialized, poor women’s experiences shows the gendered, racial, and class nature of violence at the urban margins.
Project activities and publications:
- Book manuscript in preparation
- Book proposal will be submitted in Fall 2024
Performing State Capacity: State of Emergency and Violence Management at the Urban Margins
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In 2015 and 2022, the Peruvian government enacted two almost one-year-long state of emergency decrees in Callao. Although states of emergency to curtail crime are frequently welcomed by citizens and show some positive immediate results, they have not pacified Callao. If the state of emergency does not have a long-lasting effect on urban violence, what does it do? To answer this question, I employ interviews with academics, activists, police officers, politicians, government workers, and people involved in criminal activities and 16 months of participant observation to examine why the Peruvian government repetitively employs state of emergency decrees to manage violence in Peru.
Project activities and publications:
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See It Through My Eyes: Building Place and Autonomy at the Urban Margins
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This research project is a community-based study that uses participatory action research to examine how youth and adults living in marginalized urban neighbourhoods build a sense of place and autonomy amidst the constraints of poverty and violence. I use photos taken by children from the Puerto Nuevo Photo Club, an initiative I started thanks to the funding of the Ministry of Culture of Peru, the School of Cities at the University of Toronto, and the Sociologists for Women in Society.
Project activities and publications:
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