Luciana Chamorro

I am a socio-cultural anthropologist of the Central American region and its diasporas. I write on revolution and its afterlives, authoritarian populism, and the confluences of politics with structures of desire, affect and aesthetics. My larger conceptual interests are in political theology, generational difference, political violence, and feminist and queer imaginaries of the future.

I am currently writing a book titled Afterlives of Revolution: political attachments in post-revolutionary Nicaragua, which examines the affective economies that underpin what appear to be paradoxical forms of popular investment in the authoritarian political project of Daniel Ortega in contemporary Nicaragua. I am also developing a new research project on states of exception and the weaponization of “anti-terror” laws against black, indigenous, feminist, queer and labor activists in Central America.

In addition to my written scholarship, I have created a series of ethnographic and participatory filmmaking projects on the politics of memory in Nicaragua, and collaborated in other audiovisual projects with artists based in Los Angeles. I also work as a pro bono expert witness for asylum cases in U.S. immigration court.

Research Areas(s)

·         Political and historical anthropology

·         Feminist political economy

·         Political theology, revolution and violence

·         Desire, affect and aesthetics

·         Race, gender and queer futures

·         Central America and its diasporas

·         Nicaragua

Affiliation(s)

• Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
• Institute for Research on Women and Gender

Recent Award(s)

·         Center for Citizens and Scholars, Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

·         Josephine De Kármán Foundation Dissertation Fellowship

·         Elaine Combs-Schilling Award, Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality, Columbia University, NY

·         Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life Fellowship, Columbia University, NY

·         International Travel Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University, NY

·         Social Science Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Fund