Biography

Martha K. Huggins, Charles and Leo Favrot Professor Emerita (Sociology, 2012), continues to be recognized for her research on torture in Brazil, on racial injustice, and on police abuse of power. She is a regular plenary lecturer in Brazil’s “Truth Commission” congresses, where she speaks on torture (recent lectures in Mato Grosso do Sul, 2009; Porto Alegre, 2010, 2011, 2012, and Fortaleza, 2011, Recent articles include, “Uma Aliança Notória de Tortura.” 2012. Revista Anestia: Politica e Justiça de Transiçao, Vol. 5; Pp. 194-209. Ministério da Justiça Comissão de Anistia, Brazilian Government; “State Torture: Interviewing Perpetrators, Discovering Facilitators, Theorizing Cross-nationally.” 2012. State Crime Journal, V. 1 (1). Huggins’ forthcoming article, “Tortura em Dez Lições,” will be published in Spring 2013, in O legado da tortura para a democracia, Sergio Adorno, Ed. Sao Paulo, SP. Núcleo de Estudos da Violência. Huggins is a regular “expert witness” for LGBT Brazilians seeking asylum in the U.S. under the international law against torture. Huggins is a “Friend” of the International State Crimes Initiative, University of London, King’s College, the University of Hull (UK), and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

Degrees

• B.A., California State University, Sociology, 1967
• M.A., Arizona State University, Sociology, 1973
• Ph.D., University of New Hampshire, Sociology, 1981

Academic Experience

• Professor, Tulane University, 2003-
• Professor, Union College, 1989-2003
• Visiting Scholar, Netherlands School of Human Rights Research, 2001
• Visiting Professor, University of Brasilia, Brazil, 1993
• Assistant/Associate Professor, Union College, 1979-1989

Distinctions

• Charles A. and Leo M. Favrot Professor of Human Relations, Tulane University, 2003-
• NECLAS and Division of International Criminology Best Book prizes for “Violence Workers: Police Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities”
• Michael J. Hindelang and the NECLAS Best Book prizes for “Political Policing: The United States and Latin America”
• Fulbright Fellowships, 1991, 1981
• Ford Foundation Latin American Teaching Fellowship, 1975- 1977

Languages

• Portuguese
• Spanish

Overseas Experience

• Brazil
• Colombia

Related Experience

• Executive Committee, Brazilian Studies Association, 2001-2004
• President, International Sociological Association Research Section on Deviance and Social Control, 1998-2002
• Fulbright Awards Discipline Advisory Committee in Criminology, 1994-1997
• President, Northeastern Association of Brazilianists, 1992-1993
• Board of Directors, International Sociological Association, Crime and Deviance Research Committee, 1985-1990

Selected Publications

• 2012. “Uma Aliança Notória de Tortura.” Revista Anestia: Politica e Justiça de Transiçao, Vol. 5; Pp. 194-209.
• 2008. Women Fielding Danger: Negotiating Ethnographic Identities in Field Research. Editor with Marie-Louise Glebbeek. Boulder, CO: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers.
• 2002. Violence Workers: Brazilian Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Atrocities. With Mika Haritos-Fatouros and Philip Zimbardo. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• 1998. Political Policing: The United States and Latin America. Durham: Duke University Press.
• 1991. Vigilantism and the State in Modern Latin America: Essays of Extra-legal Violence. Editor. Westport, CT: Praeger.
• 1984. From Slavery to Vagrancy in Brazil: Crime and Social Control in the Third World. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.