Towards a loving justice: Kinship activism against femicide in Argentina

Branigan, Claire

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122193 Copy

Description

Title

Towards a loving justice: Kinship activism against femicide in Argentina

Author(s)

Branigan, Claire

Issue Date

2023-08-14

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Orta , Andrew

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

• Orta , Andrew
• Dominguez , Virginia R

Committee Member(s)

• Moodie, Elllen
• Greenberg, Jessica

Department of Study

Anthropology

Discipline

Anthropology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• femicide
• Argentina
• activism
• law

Abstract

This dissertation is an ethnography of the movement for justice in cases of femicide in Argentina. Taking place in court rooms, street protests, and victims’ homes, I locate my questions in the ambiguous space that exists between “the law” and “justice” to explore how kinship activists (family members of victims and their feminist allies) seek retribution following a woman’s murder in a legal system that is historically machista (sexist) and impune (with pervasive impunity). Argentina, like most of Latin America, has some of the most progressive laws against femicidio (the murder of women) and gender-based violence (GBV) in the world, yet research continues to show that governments do not implement these laws effectively or at all. Since the 1990s, family members of victims and feminist activists throughout the region have brought attention to femicidio through the Ni Una Menos (“Not One Woman Less”) movement that has been especially strong in Argentina. Like many contemporary Latin American social movements, “justicia” (justice) is one of the movement’s central demands, yet little is known about what justice looks like and how it is achieved following a femicidio, a legal category unique to Latin American law and jurisprudence. Based upon seven months of ethnographic fieldwork in several Argentine cities, and five months of online ethnography, this dissertation focuses on kinship activists to explore the ways in which they work through their pain and grief to cultivate a “loving justice”: a kind of justice that demands state accountability while also fostering an ongoing environment of care and accompaniment for survivors. Focusing on four distinct justice-seeking modalities including sociality, narrative, embodied activism, and the written word (laws and legal sentences), I trace the ways in which the struggle for justice in cases of femicide moves from the abstract to the concrete, not through the top-down implementation of law, but rather through the ongoing collective efforts of everyday people.

Graduation Semester

2023-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Claire Branigan

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