Email: mjeranko at live.unc.edu
Phone:
Office: 303D Alumni
Area of Interest:
Anthropology of Latin America (Ecuador), gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, feminist ethnography, participatory action research, disaster anthropology, gender-based violence, critical development studies
EDUCATION
MA in Latin American Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, 2017
Certificate of Gender and Development Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, 2017
Thesis Title: Multi-Scale Approaches to Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Ecuador
BA Sociology and Languages, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2015
RESEARCH AND ACTIVITIES
Originally from Slovenia, I came to UNC in 2017 after completing a MA in Latin America Studies at the University of Florida, where I wrote a thesis based on my fieldwork in Ecuador, where I analyze the ideas and meanings associated with gender-based violence (GBV) among differently positioned actors, and the factors commonly associated with reported experiences of GBV and with the decision to report violence.
In my doctoral work, I investigate the ways in which gender, class, ethno-race and gender-based violence interact with the changing physical and socio-political landscapes in Latin America, specifically in Ecuador. I employ participatory action research methods to explore how different types of successive disasters (e.g. earthquake, floods, and COVID-19) and subsequent initiatives (e.g. provision of workshops, housing, and other resources) impact long-term reconstruction processes, particularly with relation to gender relations within households and communities in a fishing village on the coast of Ecuador.
I am also interested in design and methods of research in Latin American Studies, specifically in how we can develop and apply feminist and engaged methodologies to carry out collaborative and context-sensitive research, learn from different socio-cultural worlds, and forge transnational bonds of solidarity.
My research has been funded by The National Science Foundation, Natural Hazards Center at The University of Colorado, The City of Ljubljana, UNC-Chapel Hill, and The University of Florida.
Recent Presentations:
“Post Earthquake Well-being, Gender and Assets in Coastal Ecuador.” Paper at the Annual Conference of the Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, February 22, 2019 (organizer).
2018 “Gender, Race and Fishing in the Post-Earthquake Coastal Ecuador.” Paper Presented at the American Anthropology Association in San Jose, California. November 15, 2018.
2018 “Ingredients for Building Transnational Feminist Solidarity: Kitchenspaces and Community-Based Research in the Post-Earthquake Coastal Ecuador.« Paper Presented at the Feminism Here and Now: Continuities and Contraditions Conference, UNC Chapel Hill. December 1, 2018.
2018 “A View from the Kitchen Window: Gender and Kitchenspaces in the Post-Earthquake Coastal Ecuador.” Paper Presented at the Food Studies Conference at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, October 6, 2018.
2018 “Gender-Based Violence and Intersectionality in Ecuador.” Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, February 16.
2017 “Mujeres que denuncian: Los factores socioculturales, económicas y legales asociadas a la violencia de género en el Ecuador.” Invited Presentation at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Facultad de Jurisprudencia, Quito, Ecuador, May 17.
2017 “Multi-Scale Approaches to Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Ecuador.” Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS), Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 24, 2017.
2017 “’Pero el sistema también maltrata a las mujeres’: Responses to gender-based violence in Ecuador.” Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting Thinking Gender, Imagining Reparations, Los Angeles, California, February 10, 2017.
2017 “Sistematización de la información de los/las usuarias del Servicio de Atención a Víctimas de CEPAM” Invited Presentation at the Centro Ecuatoriano para la Promoción y Acción de la Mujer (CEPAM), Quito, Ecuador, May 22, 2017. (Invited Talk)
2017 “Sto Obrazov Nasilja [One Hundred Faces of Violence],” Invited presentation at Radio Študent, Ljubjana, Slovenia, August 19. Available here: https://radiostudent.si/dru%C5%BEba/sektor-%C5%BE/sto-obrazov-nasilja (in Slovenian)