Viteri, Maria Amelia

Bio

Maria Amelia Viteri is a recognized transnational, socio-cultural anthropologist of Globalization, Gender, Queer, and Migration Studies. Her research presents a critical look at the multiple ways migrants negotiate what it means to be American, Latino, and “Queer”, providing fertile ground for theoretical, methodological, and political debates on the importance of a transnational and comparative framework when analyzing local/global inequalities and marginalized communities. Her first single-authored book entitled “Desbordes: Translating Racial, Ethnic, Sexual and Gender Identities across the Americas” (2014: SUNY Press) ethnographically addresses the limits and constraints of current paradigms within which sexuality and gender have been commonly analyzed, as they intersect with race, class, ethnicity, immigration status, and citizenship. 

Dr. Viteri has published extensively, in English and Spanish, primarily for an academic audience, and additionally to inform public policy, the international development field, and the media as in “IntenSiones: Tensions and Queer Agency and Activism in LatinoAmérica” (2018, Feminist Studies Journal). Some of her other publications include: “Cultural Imaginaries in the Residential Migration to Cotacachi” (2016, Journal of Latin American Geography, University of Texas Press); Strategy Research Report on Mainstreaming Gender and Indigenous Peoples in Guyana (2016, IDB); Gender and Nutrition Manual for Health Care Service Providers (2015, World Food Program), and; “Citizenship(s), Belonging and Xenophobia in Ecuador and New York City (2013, The Journal of Language and Sexuality). Dr. Viteri has also incorporated mixed methods such as action research, multimedia, and film to promote dialogues with local communities.

Her most recent research project addresses Chinese public discourses, their systems of meaning, as well as policies and agreements in the Global South - particularly in Latin America and Ecuador, critically illustrating their impact on the economy, the environment, and the country's geopolitics.