Maria E. Lopez

Non-Resident Fellow

Research Project: Sexual Violence and Femicide in Mexico’s Border Cities

Research Interest: Sociology of gender and sexual violence; migration; governmentality; necropolitics; power dynamics through narratives; social inequality; human rights

Maria E. Lopez is a reader in sociology at the School of Social Sciences and Professions and deputy director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre (GDIR) at London Metropolitan University. Launched in summer 2020, the center operates as an interdisciplinary hub to advance understanding of global inequalities and social justice. Lopez is also a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Security, Intelligence and Governance at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico (CESIG-ITAM) and editor for the “Violence in the Hispanic and Lusophone Worlds” series in Tamesis Publishing House (Boydell & Brewer).

Lopez’s research work is interdisciplinary and informs debates on pathways to peace, human rights and social justice. She is the author of several journal articles, book chapters and two monographs: “Homosexuality and Invisibility in Revolutionary Cuba: Reinaldo Arenas and Tomas Gutierrez Alea” (Tamesis, 2015) and “Gender Violence in Twenty-First-Century Latin American Women’s Writing” (Tamesis, 2022), which is coauthored with Stephen M. Hart. Lopez is currently working on her book “Sexual Violence and Femicide in Mexico’s Border Cities.”