March 2022 Affiliate of the Month: Ana Villarreal (CAS Sociology)
Dr Ana Villarreal, assistant professor of sociology and CISS affiliate, joined the BU faculty in 2016, after earning her PhD in sociology at University of California-Berkeley. Her book manuscript The Armored City: Violence and Seclusion in the Mexican Metropolis reveals how increased violent crime prompts the concentration of urban wealth and public security at the city level to the detriment of larger metropolitan areas. You can learn more about Dr. Villarreal’s work at this podcast, where she discusses her recent Sociological Theory publication, “Domesticating Danger: Coping Codes and Symbolic Security amid Violent Organized Crime in Mexico.”
What made you decide to be a sociologist?
I became a sociologist to better understand the issues I care most about. For over a decade, I have studied social responses to increased criminal and state violence in Mexico. I saw first-hand how quickly violence and fear can transform a social world and hope to contribute work that helps trace some of its consequences for people’s everyday lives in Mexico and beyond.
Can you tell us about a recent research project that you’re excited about?
I’m working on completing my first book The Armored City: Violence and the Stratifying Power of Fear in the Mexican Metropolis. This book approaches fear as a social emotion and as a social process. We know that fear makes people suspicious of each other and build walls, but I found fear can also bring people together out of necessity and reconfigure social relations, spaces, and even entire cities in the process. The main point I make in the book is that fear, when prompted by a large-scale threat at a societal level, has stratifying power or the ability to quickly exacerbate inequality by means of the unequal resources people draw upon to “solve” or at least manage fear in their everyday lives.
What is the best piece of professional advice you ever received?
Historian Froylán Enciso once told me, “write 500 words a day.” That advice helped me finish my dissertation and book manuscript. I’ve found that small but consistent writing goals help me stay connected to my work between writing sessions and disconnect when I’m done for the day.
What is your favorite course you’ve taught at BU?
I love teaching social theory for undergraduates (CAS SO 203). I’ve taught this class many times and hope to teach it many more. It is always a pleasure to see my students bring social theory to life when they use it to understand the social issues they care most about.
Tell us a surprising fact about yourself.
I trained as a bus driver for my first ethnography.