REBECCA HANSON Assistant Professor of Sociology, Criminology, and Latin American Studies
Welcome to my site! I am an assistant professor at the University of Florida and founder and director of UF's International Ethnography Lab. I am interested in politics, policing, and violence in Latin America and qualitative research. Here you can find out about my research, teaching, and publications.
Below are a few of my most recent publications
Click on the Publications tab to jump to my books, articles, and contributions to public sociology
For a complete list, see my CV.
BOOKS
Check out the New Books Network Podcast episode on Harassed here and our book talk at University of Florida!
Harassed: Gender, Bodies and Research, University of California Press, 2019
"A groundbreaking contribution and a long overdue publication about the deafening sexual silence surrounding the fieldwork experiences of many women scholars conducting qualitative research in sociology."—Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, The University of Texas at Austin
"Identifying how academic standards themselves—and ethnographic standards specifically—make sociologists vulnerable to gender and sexualized violence is an important and timely contribution to the field. The book is clearly written, organized, and presented. It should be required reading for any class on ethnography or in-depth interviewing, for any researcher conducting ethnography or interviews, and for any faculty member who is advising students conducting such work. Armed with this book, researchers will not only be better able to protect themselves but they will also gain a model for how to learn and teach from their own embodied experiences in the field."—Abigail C. Saguy, University of California, Los Angeles
The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela: Revolution, Crime, and Policing During Chavismo, 2022
"This book defies basic assumptions about crime: while Venezuela under Chavez reduced poverty and inequality and promoted economic growth, criminality skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. This collection of brilliant studies written by frontline scholars provides responses to this riddle from various perspectives and methods, and subtly unfolds the many ways criminal violence explodes. This is a seminal work for social studies that transcends Venezuela. It provides lessons for understanding the multifaceted challenges Latin American nations must face to address public safety and social cohesion."—Marcelo Bergman, National University of Tres de Febrero
"Besides enriching our understanding of the relationship among organized criminal groups, the Venezuelan state, and armed violence, this timely volume promises critical comparative leverage for understanding these relationships throughout the region. To take a headline example, Venezuela eclipsed Brazil in police killings of civilians in 2016, yet criminal organizations seem to have grown more organized over time. Hardline but ultimately counterproductive repression can, it would seem, appeal to many different sorts of regimes. This is both an impeccable country case study and a thoughtfully framed set of interventions designed to advance larger cross-regional and disciplinary research agendas."—Benjamin Lessing, University of Chicago
RECENT PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES
Verónica Zubillaga and Rebecca Hanson. 2024. “Shoutings, scoldings, gossip and whispers: Mothers’ responses to armed actors and militarization in two Caracas barrios”. Latin American Research Review 59(1): 1-18
Abstract
How do mothers deal with chronic violence and the constant presence of guns in their neighborhoods? How do they build situated meaning and discursive practices out of their experiences and relationships with armed actors? We compare the experiences of women in two poor and working-class neighborhoods in Caracas. Through this comparative ethnographic project, we aim to show how, in the midst of state-sponsored depredation and with an overwhelming presence of guns in their lives, women use their cultural roles as mothers to perform everyday forms of resistance vis-à-vis the different armed actors that impose their presence in the barrios. In the mothers’ daily struggles, dramatic discursive actions—from more openly oppositional ones, such as shouting, scolding, and talking, to more hidden ones, such as both “circulating gossip” and “captive gossip,” to more vulnerable ones, such as whispering—are main resources in the micropolitics of their neighborhoods. Our findings suggest that strategies are context dependent and most likely vary according to numerous factors, including the history of civic organizing, policing practices, and the type of armed actor with whom they cohabitate in their neighborhood.
Graeme Blair, et al. 2021. "Community policing does not build citizen trust in police or reduce crime in the Global South". Science 374: 1-14
Abstract
Community policing has been implemented around the world on every continent. However, although there is evidence for its positive effects in rich countries, there is no systematic evidence about whether community policing effectively generates trust and reduces crime in the Global South. Working in partnership with local police agencies, we conducted six coordinated field experiments in Brazil, Colombia, Liberia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Uganda to test the outcomes of community policing. Our interventions reached approximately 9 million people in 516 treated areas. We find that Increases in locally appropriate community policing practices led to no improvements in citizen-police trust, no greater citizen cooperation with the police, and no reduction in crime in any of the six sites.
Verónica Zubillaga, Rebecca Hanson, and Francisco Sánchez. 2022. “Gobernanzas criminales en Caracas”. Dilemas: Revista de Estudos de Conflito e Controle Social. Special issue “Governança Criminal na América Latina em Perspectiva comparada”, edited by Luana Dias Motta and Benjamin Lessing. 4: 529-558. Available in English and Spanish
Resumen
Este artículo compara la configuración de dos órdenes territoriales armados y las formas de gobernanzas locales en contextos autoritarios neopatrimoniales en Caracas que padecen lo que ha sido denominado como “crisis humanitaria compleja”. Dialogamos con los conceptos de gobernanza colaborativa y gobernanza criminal para entender cómo funciona el control social localmente en un contexto autoritario donde una crisis política, económica, y humanitaria ha restringido los recursos y el alcance del gobierno. El caso venezolano revela con especial interés los procesos de mutación en las relaciones entre actores armados y un Estado fragmentado para funciones de control social en sus territorios en un contexto de legitimidad disputada.
RECENT PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY & INTERVIEWS
Rebecca Hanson. 2024. “What Does González’s Exile Mean for Venezuela?” Latin American Advisor, September 13
Rebecca Hanson and Verónica Zubillaga. 2024. “Massive protests erupt again over disputed Venezuelan elections – but they look different this time”. The Conversation, July 31
“¿A quién beneficia el exilio de Edmundo González en España?”. 2024. Artículo14, article by Esther Sanz Sieteiglesias, September 11
“Joe Biden lifted sanctions on Venezuela. Is he to blame for the country’s disputed elections?” 2024. POLITIFACT, article by Marta Campabadal Graus and Maria Ramirez Uribe, August 2
“Venezuela, ¿y ahora qué? Las opciones de Machado ante el fraude de Maduro”. 2024. Artículo14, article by Esther Sanz Sieteiglesias, July 31
“Présidentielle au Venezuela: de nouvelles manifestations attendues après la réélection de Maduro”. 2024. AFP News, article by Mariëtte Le Roux, July 30
“Como morre uma democracia: os impactos do novo avanço autoritário de Maduro”. 2024. VEJA Magazine, article by Amanda Péchy, July 29
“¿Qué hará Estados Unidos cuando se conozca al ganador?”. 2024. Clarín, article by María Eugenia Plano, July 28
“Amid fears of foul play, Venezuela grids for uncertain election”. 2024. AFP News, article by Mariëtte Le Roux, July 21
Rebecca Hanson. 2023. "Regresamos a la vieja cultura de la militarización policial”. 2023. PRODAVINCI, interview by Hugo Prieto, June 6
Rebecca Hanson and Verónica Zubillaga. 2022. “Shifting dynamics of violence: The revolution’s most powerful legacy?” NACLA 54(1): 96-100. Available in Spanish
“Bouncy Castles and Grenades: Gangs Erode Maduro’s Grip on Caracas”. 2021. The New York Times, article by Isayen Herrera and Anatoly Kurmanaev, May 30
Rebecca Hanson. 2021. “Popularity contests deepen Venezuela’s deadly stalemate”. NACLA 53(1):15-18
Rebecca Hanson and Patricia Richards. 2020. “What does sexual harassment tell us about the construction of ethnographic knowledge?” ASA Footnotes 47(5):4-6
Rebecca Hanson and Patricia Richards. 2020. “La etnografía corporizada en tiempos de pandemia: ¿A dónde vamos desde aquí?” LASA Forum 52(1): 24-28
“Fact-checking Matt Gaetz on gun bans in Australia and Venezuela”. 2019. POLITIFACT, article by Amy Sherman, August 10
“Understanding the Venezuelan Crisis”. 2019. Understanding Latin American Politics Podcast, UNC-Charlotte, interviewed by Greg Weeks. Episode 62, February 1
Rebecca Hanson and Francisco Sánchez. 2019. "The Stalemate in Venezuela." NACLA, September 12.
“Two Men claim to be the president of Venezuela”. 2019. Knowledge @Wharton, University of Pennsylvania. January 25
Rebecca Hanson and Francisco Sánchez. 2019. “Venezuela’s Popular Sectors and the Future of a Country” NACLA, February 13. Available in Spanish
Tim Gill and Rebecca Hanson. 2019. “How Washington Funded the Counterrevolution in Venezuela” The Nation, February 8.
Rebecca Hanson and Tim Gill. 2019. “Venezuela at Another Crossroads” NACLA, January 24.
Rebecca Hanson. 2018. "Deciphering Venezuela’s Emigration Wave" NACLA 50 (4): 356-359.
Rebecca Hanson. 2018. “Four Charts Show Venezuela’s Worsening Migrant Crisis” The Conversation, September 6.
Rebecca Hanson and Leonard Gómez Núñez. 2018. “Behind the Scenes of Venezuela’s Deadly Prison Fire” The Conversation, April 4.
Rebecca Hanson. 2017. “Protecting the Right to Life in Venezuela” NACLA 49(3): 309-314.