Tal Nitsan is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology studying the intersections between gender, violence, law and society focusing on Latin America.

Since 2003 Tal has been focusing on peace and wartime violence against women and since 2007 she has based her work in Guatemala. She is specifically interested in the influence of international, regional and local discourses, ideas and funds on the different ways women activists understand violence against women in Guatemala and, accordingly, the different modes of action they choose to struggle against this violence. She is currently in the process of writing her PhD dissertation, which explores the practice of (Women’s) Human Rights in Guatemala, more specifically, on the practices used by women’s organizations and independent feminists to promote, develop, and socialize ideas of women and human rights in the country, and secure life free of violence to Guatemalans.

Tal holds an MA in Sociology & Social Anthropology and a BA in Latin American Studies and Sociology & Social Anthropology from Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Supervisor: Professor Bruce Miller, Department of Anthropology, UBC
Committee: Gaston Gordillo, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, UBC;   Juanita Sundberg Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, UBC

Selected Research Contributions

Publications:

2012  The Body that Writes: Reflections on the Process of Writing about Wartime

            Rape Avoidance in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. In Rape in Wartime. R. 

            Branche, I. Delpla, J. Horne, P. Lagrou, D. Palmieri and  F. Virgili eds. Pp:

            153-168. London: Macmillan.

2011  Réponses publiques à un texte académique sur la rareté du viol dans le conflit 

          Israélo- Palestinien. In Les viols en temps de guerre: une histoire à écrire. R.

           Branche, I. Delpla, J. Horne, P. Lagrou, D. Palmieri et F. Virgili eds. Pp:

           159-176. Paris: Payot.  

2008  (with Birky Emily) Who Owns Padre Guillermo’s Memory: Questioning 

          Material, Cultural, and Intellectual Propertyal. Voices: Engaging Local and

          Global Discourses.

2007  Controlled Occupation: The Rarity of Military Rape in the Israeli-Palestinian 

          Conflict  Shaine Working Papers Vol. 12. Jerusalem: The Shaine Center for 

          Research in Social Science.

2007  Questioning Cultural Boundaries- Faye Turney and the Manipulation of 

          Stereotypes. Views from the Edge. Occasional Working Papers. Vol. 15 (1):

          85-95.

2007  Reflections on Methodology and Ethics of doing Anthropology of the  

          Absence  of Violence “At Home.” Humans: Anthropological Perspectives on 

          Holism.

Academic Presentations:

2013  Turning a Motto into a Reality: La violencia contra la mujer es un delito; Y

           el  femicidio también!  Paper presented at the Latin American Studies  

              Association Meeting: Towards a New Social Contract?  Washington DC.

2013    Guatemaltecas, Contemporary Politics and the Legacy of the  Peace Accords.

Paper presented  at the Latin American Studies Association Meeting: Towards

a New Social Contract? Washington DC.

2013    Here I Am: Entering the Field and Managing Identity. Paper presented as part of the 'Fieldwork in

Difficult Settings' Series. Liu Institute for Global Issues, B.C.  

2012   Born by Fire, Raised by Fire - The (Trans/National) Guatemalan Feminist  Movement.

Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association: Borders and Crossings.

San Francisco, CA. 

2012  Guatemalan Feminists' Anti Violence Performances. Latin American Studies

          Graduate Workshop, UBC.  

2012  Witches' Sabbath: Guatemalan Feminists' Anti Violence Performances.

           Presented in the Latin American Studies Association Conference: Toward a 

          Third Century of Independence in Latin America, San Francisco, California.

2012  Move it all Up: Butterflies, Witches, and Hope. Presented as part of panel at 

          an art  installation on the topic at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, B.C. 

2011  Taking Space to Make Space for HERstories of Violence in Guatemala. Presented in the American Anthropological Association Meeting: Traces, Tidemarks and Legacies. Montreal, Quebec.

2011  Guatemala: Anti Violence Performances. Presented in Methods and Ethics of

           Researching in Conflict Zones Series. Liu Institute for Global Issues, B.C. 

2011  Here I am. AGSA Talk Series. Department of Anthropology, UBC.

2011  Glawcalized: The Guatemalan Law against Femicide as a meeting point between Global and Local, Presented in the Law Graduate Students Conference: Creative Law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.  

2011  Making it Right: Developing Women’ s Rights in Post-Conflict Guatemala, Presented in the Latin America Research Group Workshop. Victoria, BC.

2010  Femicide in Guatemala – Glocal Reactions to Glocal Causes. Presented in the American Anthropological Association Meeting: Circulations. New Orleans, LA.

2010  Developing Women's Rights in Guatemala through the Legacy of Human Rights Violations. Presented in the Latin American Studies Association Conference: Crisis Response Recovery, Toronto, Canada.

2009  The Space of Legal Change. Presented in the Canadian Anthropology Society / American Ethnological Society Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

2009  The Body that Writes. Rape in Wartime: A History to be Written, Presented in the Colloque International, Institute Historique Allemand, Paris.

2008  Questioning the Public Arena as a Space for the Construction of Women's Political Subjectivity. Presented in the American Anthropological Association Meeting. San Francisco, California.

2008  Dead Women Walking – The Systematic Killing of Women in Contemporary Guatemala. Presented in the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Conference. University of British Columbia, Vancouver.   

2008  Visible/Invisible Aspects of Violence in contemporary Guatemala. Presented in the Northwest

            Anthropological Conference, Victoria, British Columbia.

2008  Who Owns Padre Guillermo’s Memory? Presented in the Anthropology Graduate Students Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

2007  Questioning Cultural Boundaries- Faye Turney and the Manipulation of Stereotypes. Presented in the Women Studies Graduate Students Conference, University of British Columbia.

2007  Reflections on Methodology and Ethics of doing Anthropology of the Absence of Violence "At Home." Presented in the Anthropology Graduate Students Conference, University of British Columbia.

2006    Medical and Legal Discourse as Regulating the Body of the Rape-victim, Presented in The Israeli Anthropological Association Meeting, Bar Ilan University.

2004  Who needs the Ethic Code?, Presented in the Israeli Anthropological Association Meeting, Ben-Gurion Institute.

Public Talks, Invited Lectures and other Projects:

2012  Ni el la calle, ni el la cama: Protesting intimate violence in Public. Presented at Common Threads: Photographs on Cultural Resistance in the Philippians and Guatemala. UBC Global Lounge, BC.

2012  Here i am: Doing Ethnographic Research in Guatemala. Presented as part of "An Evening in Guatemala." UBC Global Lounge, BC. 

2012  Move it all Up. Art Installation. Presented at the Lobby Gallery, Liu Institute  

          for Global Issues, B.C. 

2010  Killer's Paradise: Femicide in Postwar Guatemala. Green College's Member Series. Green College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

2009  Beyond Margaret Thatcher: Do Women Leaders Matter?” International Woman's Day 2009. Green College, University of British Columbia.

2008  Killer's Paradise: Femicide in Postwar Guatemala. St. John’s College's Documentary Series. St. John’s College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

2008  Femicide. International women's week. Green College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

2003  The Empowerment Process of Women Political Exiles from Latin American, The Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Selected Awards:

2012   The Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on Gender and Human Rights, The Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas School of Law.

2007    The Shaine Prize for Masters’ Thesis,  The Shaine Center for Research in the Social Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

2007       The Israeli Sociological Society, Masters’ Thesis Award.