Dr Phoebe Martin

Visual and Embodied Politics: Activism and the Contemporary Feminist Movement in Peru

Supervisors:

Professor Paulo Drinot and Professor Jelke Boesten (King’s College London) (primary supervisors

Professor Maxine Molyneux (secondary supervisor)

Funding:

My research is supported by a London Arts and Humanities Partnership studentship.

PhD completed in 2022

How have women in Peru used cultural contestations to challenge dominant discourses? Cultural forms of protest, or 'cultural contestations', have long been crucial in allowing marginalised groups, particularly women, to provide alternative and oppositional narratives. My project looks at how cultural contestations have been used by women in Peru; comparing how cultural actors, activists, mainstream media, and the state construct narratives in relation to sexuality, the body, motherhood, and sexual violence.

Culture, such as writing, art and performance, plays a part during periods of mobilisation, but also during times of abeyance. While NGO-based activism that pursues state-centred goals has an important role to play, it is also crucial to look at contestations that function on the level of culture when challenging cultural norms. In this way we can see how women can use culture to amplify their voices in their full diversity.

Awards/Grants/Scholarships/Funding

London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) studentship

Conference papers and presentations

‘Poner la cuerpa’: The Body as a Site of Reproductive Rights Activism in Peru – at Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America conference, 14^th-15^th January 2021

Conference / event organisation

ANDINXS: Addressing Contemporary Politics and Gender in the Andes (workshop co-organised with Dr Rebecca Irons, 28^th February 2020)

Publications / Research experience

Blog: ‘The 'Pañuelo Verde' Across Latin America: a Symbol of Transnational and Local Feminist (Re)volution’ Feminist Perspectives, KCL
Editorial collective member, Feminist Perspectives blog

Teaching

2019-20 PGTA, History and Politics of Latin America

Media appearances and mentions

Quoted inter alia in Guardian article on ‘A Rapist in Your Path’ 3^rd February 2020

Memberships

SLAS

Other

Student Coordinator, Gender Studies Network at King’s College London https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/gender-studies-at-kings