M. Gabriela Torres
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Office: Knapton 106
Office Hours: MWF 10:30-11:20 (Fall 2008)
Phone: 508-286-3676
Email: torres_mgabriela@wheatonma.edu
Degrees
Ph.D., York University
M.A., Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Quito, Ecuador
B.A., University of British Columbia
Research Interests
I am a specialist in the anthropology of violence and the state with research experience in the study of gender, memory and migration. My research and publications are focused around theoretical questions of the nature and practice of violence, gendered effects of violence, the development of the state, urban development and identity formation.
My current research project focuses on the role that Guatemalan print media played in the promotion of gendered state violence through both textual analysis and analysis of interviews with journalists, photographers and editors involved in the production of print media in the 1970s.
Teaching Interests
Latin American Cultures
Anthropology of the State
Anthropological Theory and Methods
Incorporating Web-based technologies into the classroom
Fear and Nationalism
Politics of Urban Transformations
Student Projects
Collaboration with Evelyn Sanders ('08) and John Campopiano ('08) to study municipal, provincial and federal efforts to create an image of a "clean" or "civil" city for Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics.
Students in Anthropology 102 are working on "Blogging Culture". For a sample of the exciting work being done by students go to the Blogging Culture website.
Publications
M. Gabriela Torres, Bloody Deeds/Hechos Sangrientos: Reading Guatemala's Record of Political Violence in Cadaver Reports. In Menjivar, Cecilia and Rodriguez, Nestor. (Eds.) When States Kill. Austin: University of Texas Press (2005). (p.143-169)
M. Gabriela Torres, Constructing the Threat of Insurgency: Inherent Inequalities in the Development of the Guatemalan Counterinsurgent State. In Special Issue: Poverty and Inequality in the Latin American-U. S. Borderlands: Implications of U. S. Interventions. Journal of Poverty, 8(4) (2004).
This paper was co-published simultaneously as:
M. Gabriela Torres, Constructing the Threat of Insurgency: Inherent Inequalities in the Development of the Guatemalan Counterinsurgent State. In Kilty, Keith and Segal, Elizabeth (Eds.) Poverty and Inequality in the Latin American-U.S. Borderlands: Implications of U.S. Interventions. New York: The Haworth Press (2004). (p.7-29)
M. Gabriela Torres, The Unexpected Consequences of Violence: Rethinking Gender Roles and Ethnicity. In North, Liisa and Simmons, Alan. (Eds.) Journeys of Fear: Refugee Return and National Transformation in Guatemala. Montreal and Toronto: McGill/Queen's University Press (1999). (p.155-175)
Book Reviews
M. Gabriela Torres. Killer's Paradise (Film Review) In Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. 12(2) (November 2007).
M. Gabriela Torres. Political Movements and Violence in Central America Charles D. Brockett (Book Review) In Latin American Politics and Society. 48(4) (November 2006). (p.188-191)
M. Gabriela Torres. Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala. Daniel Wilkinson (Book Review). In Journal of Latin American Anthropology. 10(2) (November 2005).