The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis Book Talk & Discussion

Join the Boston University Initiative on Cities, Center for Latin American Studies, and Department of Sociology to discuss Assistant Professor of Sociology Ana Villarreal’s book on the impacts of criminal and state violence on everyday life in Mexico. Drawing from two years of qualitative fieldwork in Monterrey, Mexico during a turf war, Professor Villarreal takes a new approach to how fear exacerbates existing inequalities in all aspects of life for residents in Mexico’s metropolises.

The discussion will be moderated by Initiative on Cities Director Loretta Lees. Panel discussions will feature Assistant Professor Ana Villarreal, Professor of Sociology Japonica-Brown Saracino. Alexandra Délano, Associate Professor of Politics & Global Studies at The New School, and Verónica Zubillaga, Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Professor of Sociology at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas.</P>

About the Panelists:

Ana Villarreal is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University. She specializes in the sociology of violence, emotions, and urban life and is the author of The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis (2024).

Loretta Lees is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Initiative on Cities. An urban geographer committed to justice, Professor Lees is internationally known for her research on gentrification and urban regeneration, global urbanism, urban policy, urban public space, architecture, and urban social theory.

Japonica Brown-Saracino is the Chair and Professor of Sociology at Boston University. She is an ethnographer who specializes in urban and community sociology, cultural sociology, and the study of race, ethnicity, and sexuality. Her most recent book, How Places Make Us: Novel LBQ Identities in Four Small Cities, was published 2018 by the University of Chicago Press. The book draws on her comparative ethnography of four small cities with growing or emerging populations of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women. It highlights how city ecology shapes social interactions and how we understand ourselves and the groups we belong to.

Verónica Zubillaga is a Venezuelan Sociologist. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an Associate Professor at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas. In recent years Zubillaga has combined academia with public impact on social and armed violence, advocating for arms control and disarmament public policy in her country. Among her recent publications is the co-edited volume The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela (The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022).

Alexandra Délano is an Associate Professor of Politics and Global Studies at The New School. Her research focuses on Mexico-US migration, the Mexican diaspora in the U.S., memory activism, borders, and the politics of mourning. Among her recent publications is the co-edited volume Las luchas por la memoria contra las violencias en México (The Struggles for Memory Against Violences in Mexico, El Colegio de México, 2023).

When 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Building Initiative on Cities, 75 Bay State Road
Contact Name Elizabeth Amrien
Contact Email edamrien@bu.edu
Contact Organization Center of Latin American Studies
Fees Free