This three-year research project is about women’s resistance to violence(s) in high-risk settings in Latin America. I will be based at the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas at the UNAM (Mexico City) and the Latin American Centre & Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (Oxford, UK).

In contexts of high violence, we might expect women to shy away from activities that augment their exposure to risk. My previous research shows, however, that against all odds, women do engage in high-risk collective action. These women transgress traditional gender barriers and thus expose themselves to the additional risks of retributive violence. Not only are such women resisting violence, their activism focuses on the pursuit of gender justice.

The project has two objectives:

• To further document and explain women’s high-risk mobilisation in the region, particularly in Mexico & El Salvador (building on existing work in Colombia);

• To comparatively study women’s leadership in high-risk social movements across Latin America.