About

I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. My research examines how ordinary people in Latin America organize and interact with formal power structures to pursue self-defined objectives. I use ethnography and participatory action research models to co-produce knowledge with research participants that we might more effectively engage with governments (or not) in favor of emancipatory agendas.

My dissertation and book manuscript-in-progress examines the dynamics of power and conflict within the post-revolutionary lefts of El Salvador and Nicaragua as the FMLN and Sandinista “movement parties” have held state power. I detail and theorize the innovative practices of increasingly autonomous social movements as they supplant the (electoral) vanguard of yesteryear (/day). Through the territorialized perspectives of participants in feminist, environment, peasant, and urban-based movements across the two countries I show how revolutionary legacies intersect with trans-local processes to shape movement-state dynamics according to local contexts. Theoretical contributions push us to fully engage with grassroots potential for refashioning processes of governance and social change, while practical discussions distill a series of strategic lessons for movements operating under ostensibly allied governments.

This work has led me into two additional research projects. One interrogates grassroots peace building amid violent contests for sovereignty between gangs and state actors in El Salvador. The second project surveys social movement practices across Latin America as they exemplify alternative understandings of democratic innovation and globalization.

My writing has appeared, or is forthcoming in International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Latin American Perspectives, The Handbook of Central American Governance, The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements, and various edited volumes in English and Spanish, among other places.

• Contact: dpb36@pitt.edu