Tara Yanez

Tara Yanez is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose research examines the gendered and racialized dynamics of criminal and political violence in Latin America. Drawing on qualitative methods and feminist, community-engaged research methodologies, her research centers the often-overlooked roles women play in protecting loved ones and creating informal systems of security and justice in violence-affected communities. Her dissertation was awarded a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in recognition of its distinctive contribution to the study of ethics and values in the social sciences. Her research has also been supported by the Murphy Institute Center of Ethics and the Mellon Graduate Program in Community-Engaged Scholarship. Her current book project, Women-led Strategies of Security and Justice, examines how women living in the urban periphery of Cali, Colombia, respond to state and criminal violence. 

Yanez holds a PhD in Latin American Studies from Tulane University, an MA in Latin American Studies from Columbia University, and a BA in English and Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin.