The Revolution Question: Feminisms in El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba, Rutgers University Press (2004)

I have written extensively about women, revolution, and feminism in Latin America. My first monograph, The Revolution Question: Feminisms in El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba analyzes the roles of women in revolutionary struggles and the relationship of their experiences to the emergence of feminism. In this book I focus on three Latin American countries that have experienced revolutionary movements of historical and regional significance: El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba. In each case I document the roles of women in armed and unarmed political activities and argue that women contribute to and participate in revolutionary movements in ways quite distinct from men. I argue that, despite the fact that women's political contributions tend to be seen as less important than those of their male comrades, the roles that women play are actually quite significant to the expansion of revolutionary movements.

After discussing the roles of women in each revolutionary movement I address the question of feminism. I explain how, given the convergence of political and ideological factors, feminism is often born in the wake of revolutionary movements. As a result, feminism is a much more expansive project than one focused solely upon the empowerment of women. Rather, it is a struggle that addresses larger structures of political and economic inequalities. The Revolution Question shows that feminist movements emerged in the aftermaths of the revolutionary struggles in El Salvador and Chile but not in Cuba. The book is based on interviews with women revolutionaries and feminists in all three countries.

The Revolution Question has been favorably received. In 2006 it was a finalist for the Latin American Studies Association's prestigious Bryce Wood Book Award. It has been reviewed by: American Journal of Sociology, Politics & Gender, Journal of Latin American Politics and Society, Contemporary Sociology, Journal of Latin American Studies, Journal of Third World Studies, Journal of Women's History, Mobilization, Association for Feminist Anthropology, and Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.

They Used to Call Us Witches: Chilean Exiles, Culture, and Feminism, Lexington Books (2009)

While conducting research in Chile, I became increasingly interested in exile. The Pinochet dictatorship forced over one million Chileans into exile in as many as 140 nations around the world. In a great majority of those countries exiles organized with local solidarity activists to denounce the dictatorship, and by some estimates were in part responsible for Pinochet's ultimate removal from power. My second book, They Used to Call Us Witches: Chilean Exiles, Culture, and Feminism, is a gendered social history of the Canadian manifestation of this transnational movement via a case study analysis of Vancouver, British Columbia.

In They Used to Call Us Witches I analyze and document the anti-Pinochet solidarity movement organized by Chilean exiles in Canada during the 1970s and 80s and the feminist movement that followed in the 1990s. Within this historical framework I address several issues: 1) the roles and experiences of Chilean women in the solidarity movement, 2) the organizational and strategic place of culture and emotions in the movement, and 3) the significance of feminism and feminist activism to Chilean women exiles, especially in the post-Pinochet period.

They Used to Call Us Witches is based on data collected through interviews and focus group discussions; content analysis of primary documents from and media coverage about the solidarity and feminist movements, participant observation with a Vancouver based email list, and secondary sources. Additionally, the book includes data collected from my research in Chile in 1998-1999 where I conducted interviews and did archival research about the anti-Pinochet and feminist movements within Chile during the dictatorship.

They Used to Call Us Witches has also been received favorably. In March 2011 it was awarded the Pacific Sociological Association's Distinguished Scholarship Award. It has been reviewed by Contemporary Sociology.

I have has also written a variety of articles and book chapters on this topic, including:

• "Feminist Activism in Latin America", in The Encyclopedia of Sociology. Ed. Ritzer. Blackwell Publishing. Vol no. 4: 1685-1689. 2007.
• "Women and Revolution," in Revolutionary Movements in World History: From 1750 to the Present. Ed. DeFronzo. ABC-CLIO. Vol 3, R-Z: 936-940. 2006.
• "Gendered Revolutionary Bridges: Women in the Salvadoran Resistance Movement, 1979 1992", in Latin American Perspectives. 26(3): 85-102, May 1999.