Show That You Fear God! Tracing Guatemala’s Political Economy of Morality and Gender

Military and religious ideologies magnified gender inequities in Guatemala’s Civil War. General Rios Montt’s near-fanatical adhesion to evangelical Protestant ideals became known in his regular Sunday addresses to the Guatemalan nation throughout most of the early 1980s.  To cement his enduring appeal, Rios Montt’s speeches capitalized on already established notions of masculinity in Guatemala. The General’s speeches are perhaps the most blatant example of how counterinsurgency policies, and moral, religious, and nationalist ideologies, can intersect to create culturally palatable notions of leadership that magnify gender inequity.

The talk is scheduled for Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 12:30 p.m. in the President’s Dining Room.

Spring 2012 Faculty Lunch Talks schedule (pdf)