266 - Thematic Session. Contemporary Gender/Sexual Politics in Latin America

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

States and societies in Latin America continue to grapple with the region’s recent history of political violence, state terror, and authoritarianism. The imprint of this history is apparent in contemporary social problems and political developments in various Latin American countries. One area in which we can see these linkages between past and present is the field of gender and sexual politics: from initiatives to create accountability for sexual violence perpetrated in the context of armed conflict and state terror, to human rights discourse applied to ongoing abortion and sexuality rights struggles, to activist strategies to stop rampant violence against women. Applying insights from feminist and LGBTQ studies, this panel explores the varied and specific ways in which legacies of political and state violence, including the emergence of human rights and other social movements, have informed present gender and sexual politics in Latin America.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Barbara Sutton, State University of New York-Albany

Presider

• Erynn Masi de Casanova, University of Cincinnati

Individual Presentations

• Toward a Representative Bureaucracy? Sexual Rights and the Politics of Healthcare in Brazil - Rafael de la Dehesa, City University of New York-College of Staten Island and Graduate Center

• I Knew My Sister was Next: Gender and Sexuality in Incestuous Families in Mexico - Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, University of Texas-Austin

• How Miscarriage becomes Murder: Analyzing the Origin of El Salvador’s Total Ban on Abortion - Jocelyn S. Viterna, Harvard University

• Abortion and Human Rights for Women in Argentina - Barbara Sutton, State University of New York-Albany; Elizabeth Borland, College of New Jersey