Dr Melany Cruz

I joined the School of History Politics and International Relations as a Lecturer in International Politics (Global South) in June 2021. Previously I worked as a Teaching Fellow in Political Theory at the University of Birmingham where I also completed my PhD in Political Science and International Studies in 2020.

In 2021, as part of the programme "Security and Violence", I was a Visiting Lecturer at the open-communal University, Universidad Abierta de Recoleta, in Chile. I'm also a Visiting Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) in the course 'Global Connections' at the University of Warwick. 

I have a degree in Sociology from the Universidad de Valparaiso in Chile. 

My research interests include meanings of political violence in Latin America particularly looking at violence and nonviolence in resistance movements and civil disobedience. I am interested in reconceptualising and re-politicising actions of violence that have been deemed as apolitical such as lynching (researched in my PhD) and violence against women (future research).

My current research project 'Nonviolent resistance in the Chilean Feminist movement' explores the resurgence of the feminist movement in Chile observing two aspects: (i) the formation of feminist consciousness as a political project in a context of neoliberal crisis and (ii) understandings of the meanings of violence and civil disobedience within the movement i.e. political-sexual violence, feminicide, and the idea of precariousness of life.  

I am also broadly interested in the history of feminist political ideas in Latin America, political theory and theory of emotions.

Articles

(2023) 'A revolt within a revolt': feminist political ideas in Chile’s social uprising, Feminist Review (Forthcoming, November 2023)

(2023) Feminists against all violences! Rita Laura Segato’s and Veronica Gago’s approaches to violence, in Critical Exchange
'Sexualized violence and feminist counterviolence', Contemporary Political Theory. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-023-00636-2

(2023) Becoming through nonviolent resistance: the rise of feminist consciousness in Chile, in Orofino, E., Allchorn, W. (Eds) Routledge Handbook of Non-violent Extremism: group, perspectives and new debates, London: Routledge. 

(2023) The divine form of the violence of lynching in Mexico, in "Reflections on Divine Violence: Forum on the Actuality of Benjamin's 'Critique of Violence' at Its Centenary, Part III", Contexto Internacional, 45 (1). https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-8529.20234501e2021038

(2020) Methodology and Academic Extractivism: the neo-colonialism of the British University, Third World Quarterly: Thematics, Volume 5, Issue 1-2: Decolonising Curricula and Pedagogy in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2020.1798275

(2015) Repensando el concepto de terrorismo, Apuntes de Investigacion del CECYP, Vol. 26: 179-189 [In Spanish]. ISSN 1851-9814

(2015) Empoderamiento en el Movimiento Estudiantil durante 2011 y 2012 en Chile, Universitas Psychologica, Oct-Dec 2015, Vol. 14 (4): 15-25 [In Spanish]. ISSN 1657-9267

I am interested in supervising PhD topics in: 

• Concepts and ethics of political violence and nonviolence
• Protests and civil disobedience
• Feminist movements
• Latin American conflicts and resistance movements
• Feminist Political Ideas 

I currently convene the following modules:

• PL2029 Politics of the Global South (UG year 2)
• PL3154 Political Theory of Disobedience and Protest (UG year 3)

I also contribute in the following modules:

• PL1022 Key Concepts in International Relations (UG year 1)
• PL7589 Politics of Human Rights (MA)
• PL7161 Post-Cold War World Order (MA)
• PL7076 US Foreign Policy (MA)

For media enquiries, expert opinion and interviews about progressive politics in Chile, feminist movements, and political violence in Latin America, please get in touch. 

List of recent pieces: 

The Economist's War on Chile, Tribune Magazine (15/07/22)

Processo costituente in Cile: guerra di immaginari alle porte del referendum finale, Global Project (27/07/22)

Boric’s Inauguration Is a Landmark for Chile’s Left, Tribune Magazine (11/03/22)

It was feminicide: naming Sarah Everard’s murder, Social Science Birmingham Blog (15/03/21)

All Tribune Magazine articles can be found here.

- Rapid Field Research & Data Collection Grant awarded by the International Centre on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), 2021

- Sir Ernest Barker Dissertation Prize in Political Theory awarded by the Political Studies Association (PSA), 2020

- Postgraduate Travel Grant for Research Fieldwork awarded by the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS), 2017

"Against precariouness of life!": Feminists communicate the crisis of neoliberalism in Chile" at Critical Political Economy Research Network Mid-Term Workshop (Limerick, Ireland - 22-23 July, 2022)

"Revolt within revolt": Feminist political ideas in Chile's social uprising" at Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS) Annual Conference (Bath, UK - 21-22 April, 2022)

"Ethics of care and disobedience" at Association for Political Theory (APT) Annual Conference (Amherst, US - 11-13 November, 2021)

"Decolonising the methodological university: a critique of western knowledge (re)production" [with Darcy Luke] at Critical Political Economy Research Network Mid-Term Workshop (Lisbon, Portugal - 1-2 June, 2018)

"Vital and divine violence: to understand the unleashing of crowd violence" at Dissecting Violence Conference (Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 4-6 April, 2018)

"Killing outside the law in contemporary Mexico: a theoretical comparison with the U.S." at MANCEPT (Manchester, UK - 11 -13 September, 2017)

"Linchamientos en México: ¿una forma de violencia política?" at AMECIP (Monterrey, Mexico - 3-6 August, 2016)