Traumatic States: Gendered Violence, Suffering, and Care in Chile

Acknowledgments

ix ACknowledGmentS Since the first time I traveled to Santiago, Chile, in the southern hemisphere ’s winter of 2000 to conduct preliminary fieldwork, I have become indebted to so many people who helped me produce this book and who saw me through the process it took to arrive here. Though I will not be able to name each person who has contributed, for those who remain nameless here, as well as the ones whose support and encouragement I mention, thank you. Although this work would not have been possible without these individuals and the wide communities of which I am a part, any errors and omissions herein are, of course, mine. As my mentors in the Rutgers University Department of Anthropology , Dorothy Hodgson and Peter Guarnaccia have provided me with consistent and valuable support and intellectually stimulating ideas for directions to take. Their scholarship has continued to be a beacon for my own career and to inspire me to push through to new and meaningful analyses. I was fortunate to work with Peter, first as a graduate student , then as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Rutgers Institute for Health’s National Institute for Mental Health Postdoctoral Program. He introduced me to the field of trauma and recovery and to examining categories for understanding people’s many forms and manifestations of suffering. Dorothy encouraged me to think about women’s agency and power in new ways. She consistently pushed me to improve my ability to express my ideas in written form with her incisive, challenging, and productive readings of my work. I have benefited greatly from Dorothy ’s skill and precision as an ethnographer. Meredeth Turshen’s insights into how wider suffering affects wom- x Traumatic States en’s lives in particular ways have greatly influenced my thinking. Her passion for bringing to light how women’s experiences of health and illness, and war and recovery are shaped by inequalities has accompanied me when it was difficult to continue. Her beautiful artwork has accompanied me as well. Charlotte Bunch’s work on UN women’s rights frameworks as director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University greatly influenced my interest in and dedication to the topic of domestic violence against women as a human rights issue . In particular I am grateful for my involvement with the Women’s Global Leadership Institute during the summer of 2002. Janet Siskind provided her generous support of my work and introduced me to Lesley Gill. I had the great fortune to know Lesley and receive her mentorship and learn from her scholarship. She pushed my thinking about gender, class, and militarization in Latin America and I learned so much from the conversations she, Andrew Bickford, and I shared around her kitchen table. I continue to draw from her work and the many insights and great energy she shared with me. Southern Methodist University provided generous support for my follow-up research in 2009 and 2011 and for the writing of this book. I am also grateful for support from the Sam Taylor Foundation for my 2009 field trip to Chile. Writing of this book was also supported by a National Institute for Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Rutgers University Institute for Health, where I had the opportunity to be mentored by Alan Horwitz, David Mechanic, and Peter Guarnaccia . I am grateful for the support I received to complete this research from 2002 to 2004 from the Fulbright-Hays program, the WennerGren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the Rutgers University Graduate School. Thank you especially to Teresa Del Corso at Rutgers, who provided me with thorough, critical, crucial, and patient readings of drafts of these grant proposals. I also received a Rutgers University Bevier Award to complete my dissertation write-up, as well as a Rutgers University Institute for Research on Women Fellowship for my participation in their seminar, “Diversity: Expanding Theory and Practice ,” during the 2004–2005 year. Mostly, I owe a great debt to the women whose voices make this book speak and who made it possible for me to write this book. With- Acknowledgments xi out their participation and generosity in sharing their painful and triumphant stories with me, this book would not exist. For the women who suffered domestic violence in Chile who are my friends and those with whom I was in contact only for a brief moment, I hope that I have managed...