Research examines the role of sex and violence in Peruvian military culture

An article and book by Professor Jelke Boesten and co-author Peruvian anthropologist Lurgio Gavilán have received awards from the Latin American Studies Association, the largest professional organization for those studying Latin America. Jelke Boesten is Professor in Gender and Development in the Department of International Development.

The research "Intimacies of Violence," explored the how soldiers who engaged in and witnessed sexual violence in war made sense of such violence, and how they build intimate lives post-conflict. The researchers studied these themes through interviews with ex-combatants of the Peruvian military on their experiences during the internal armed conflict from 1980s to 2000s.

An article based on this research titled "Military Intimacies: Peruvian Veterans and Narratives about Sex and Violence," published in the Latin American Research Review, was awarded the LARR University of Florida Best Article Award.

"This has been a very complex research project on many different levels and I am so very pleased that this was recognized by the judges of these book and article awards. I hope it means the work will reach more people," says Boesten.

The authors also published a book on the subject, "Perros y Promos: Memoria, violencia y afecto en el Perú" ("Dogs and mates: Memory, violence and affect among Peruvian veterans in postconflict Peru") which received an honorable mention of the LASA Iberoamericano Book Award.

Based on analysis of in-depth interviews, the book argues that the army shaped the intimate lives of recruits through sexual socialization, humiliation and violence. Soldiers experienced institutional racism and sexual abuse, and were exposed to ideas about military masculinity that helped condition them to sexually dominate the bodies of others.

The authors also have a forthcoming article from this research titled "Debris: Autoethnography, Feminist Epistemology, Ethics, and Sexual Violence" which will be published in a special section on Intimacies of Violence in the International Feminist Journal of Politics. It examines the collaborative nature of the research and its ethical implications.