Find the story, tell it well.

Research is my passion. It is challenging, humbling, and rewarding. I love the opportunity it provides to understand how people think about themselves, others, and the world around them. As a researcher, I work to identify and address social issues like gender violence, racism, and different forms of social inequality.

My training as a feminist anthropologist and experience as an activist guide my work. I support communities by conducting transparent, ethically sound research using a range of methods selected to center their voices of those I work with and provide reliable findings. My primary goal is to listen, observe, and participate with the intent to understand. This understanding comes by way of songs; stories; individual and group discussions, meetings, and interviews; archival research; respected elders; and generations of activists. These are just some of the ways the people I work with convey what is important to them.

My ethical principles and commitment drive me beyond understanding these problems to share my findings with key local and international social and political institutions to raise awareness, inform policy, and create a record of the experiences of Afro-descendants. This always includes the communities in question, the various levels of government, international entities, and funding institutions. Writing for these different audiences allows me to bring my creative and technical abilities to the fore as I tell important stories in ways that are best suited and most impactful for each group. Because research is about stories, and everyone loves a good story.

Highlighting Women’s lives.

I have worked in Peru since 2009 on issues of race, gender, activism, and inequality as they pertain to Afro-descendants. 2015-2018 I designed and created the first study of Afro-Peruvian women’s experiences with intimate partner violence and Women’s Emergency Centers run by the state. This project centered the role of race and anti-Blackness in gender-based violence, and resulted in an executive report with recommendations to the Ministry of Women to improve attention to women of African descent.

From big picture to small, and back again.

I enjoy the challenge of using various research tools to develop an in-depth understanding of the people I work with and the problem at hand. I conducted an ethnographic study of a small, rural Afro-Peruvian town as part of a comparative study of Afro-descendants in Peru presided over by a prestigious private research group. My work provided a detailed look at the history, culture, social and economic inequalities, political tendencies, and identity of the people of El Carmen. These results clearly indicate where governmental support would have the most impact for the town’s residents.