Stephanie Savell
Latin America and Brazil; political anthropology; urban anthropology; security and policing; citizenship; activism
Areas of Interest:
I conduct research on urban activism, citizenship, everyday violence, and policing in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My dissertation investigates Rio de Janeiro’s new urban security policy, “Police Pacification Units,” which employs tactics and expertise shaped by the Brazilian military’s experience leading the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti. Through ethnographic research with favela residents, police and military, and policymakers, I hope to discover if and why it matters for policing and for the urban poor that security knowledge and practices circulate internationally, and that the distinct boundaries between police and military are fading in the contemporary moment.
In addition to my primary research, I am one of the principal investigators in a collaborative, interdisciplinary ethnographic research project on everyday notions of citizenship in Providence, RI.
Status: In the field
MA Thesis: “I’m not a leader”: Grassroots civil society in a Rio de Janeiro favela
Previous Degrees:
MA, Brown University (Anthropology)
BA, Middlebury College (Anthropology/Sociology)
Contact information: stephanie_savell@brown.edu
