School of Social Sciences and Professions staff profiles content store_hidden María E. López Our staff

María is a Reader in Sociology and Deputy Director of the GDIR Centre at London Metropolitan. In addition, she is a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Security, Intelligence and Governance, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and at the Center for US–Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego.

She holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies from University College London, an MA in Postcolonial Studies from London Metropolitan University, a BA (Hons) in English Philology from the Complutense University of Madrid and a BPhil in Modern Languages from the Salamanca University.

María joined London Metropolitan University in 2007 as a Lecturer in Latin American and Spanish Studies and was a course leader for several courses in the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies from 2009 to 2014. She moved to the School of Social Sciences, where she teaches on the sociology of sex and gender, Latin American politics, political violence, human rights, and racism and ethnicity at undergraduate and graduate levels.

María’s research work is interdisciplinary and aims to inform debates on pathways to peace, human rights and social justice in conflict settings and to generate lessons that are relevant to other settings.

She is involved in several research projects on the dynamics of violence against undocumented migrants and refugees:

1. A £42,837 evaluation project on the service experience of resettling Afghan and Syrian families from bridging hotels in Islington. This evaluation builds on an internally funded project on Afghan migrants in London: accessing support in hostile times.
2. With colleagues at the College of Mexico (Colef), a research project on the dynamics of violence against undocumented migrant women travelling through Mexico. In January 2023, she visited a shelter in Mexico City and heard first-hand the experiences of women and professionals. This project will inform her book Sexual Violence and Femicide in Necropolitical Mexico’s Border Cities (under contract) and several journal articles.

María is the author of several journal articles, book chapters and two books: Homosexuality and Invisibility in Revolutionary Cuba: Reinaldo Arenas and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Tamesis, 2015) and Gender Violence in Twenty-First-Century Latin American Women's Writing (Tamesis, 2022), which is co-authored with Stephen M. Hart. She is currently working on a book titled Sexual Violence and Femicide in Mexico’s Border Cities (under contract) and several articles.

María has presented her research work in international academic venues, including:

1. National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
2. Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM)
3. City University of New York
4. New York University
5. University of La Habana
6. University of St Andrews
7. University of Paris IV Sorbonne

In the UK, she has presented her research at many venues including the LSE-Latin American and Caribbean Centre, SOAS, the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies and the University of Oxford.

María is the editor of the series the Violence in the Hispanic and Lusophone Worlds, published by Tamesis Publishing House (Boydell & Brewer LTD) and a reviewer for several publishing houses and academic journals, such as the New West Indian Guide (Brill), Routledge Books, Lexington Books (US), and the International Journal of Humor Studies (De Gruyter).

María has been awarded the following research grants:

1. January 2023 – July 2024: Islington Evaluation Project (£42,837) 'An evaluation of the Syrian and Afghan resettlement programmes in Islington'; GDIR Centre.
2. January 2022 – July 2022: Transformation Grant (£25,000) ‘Afghan migrants in London: accessing support in hostile times’; GDIR Centre.

María teaches the sociology of gender and sexuality, violence, racial and ethnic discrimination in transitional settings, migration and inequalities and human rights at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. She teaches on the Sociology BSc, Sociology and Criminology BSc, and Sociology and Psychology BSc courses.

María supervises the work of several PhD and Prof Doc students with research interests in gender and sexuality, human rights, political violence and racism and ethnicity, and is available to supervise new ones. Her specialisms are:

1. migration
2. racism
3. gender and sexual violence
4. political violence

She welcomes new PhD proposals.

Books (authored)

1. López, M.E. and Stephen M. Hart (2022) Gender Violence in Twenty-First-Century Latin American Women's Writing. Woodbridge: Tamesis, Boydell & Brewer. In print. ISSN: 2752-308X (print); ISSN: 2752-3098 (online). ISBN 9781855663169.
2. López, M.E. (2015) Homosexuality and Invisibility in Revolutionary Cuba: Reinaldo Arenas and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Woodbridge: Tamesis, Boydell & Brewer. ISBN: 9781855662889.

Selected journal articles, reviews, and book chapters

1. López, María E. (2022), 'We are tired of being told it is not a big deal': Institutional Machismo in Mexico', Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (GJIA).
2. López, María E. (2022) ‘Governance on violence against women in the necropolitical border: the case of Ciudad Juárez’, in Romero V. and Tello Peón, J. (eds.) Seguridad, Inteligencia y Gobernanza en México: Propuestas a Problemas (Mexico City: Tirant Lo Blanche), pp. 187-201.
3. López, María E. (2022) Review on Ana-Maurine Lara, Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic(Rutgers University Press), New West Indian Guide (NWIG), Brill, 96 (1-2), ISBN: 1382-2373 (Print Only); ISSN: 2213-4360 (Online)
4. López, M.E. (2017) ‘Homosexuality and homophobia in Europe’, in Isaacs, S. (ed.) European Social Problems. London: Routledge, pp. 220–236. ISBN: 9781138919938.
5. López, M.E. (2016) ‘La revolución cubana en transición: Estados Unidos, democracia, derechos humanos y el Papa Francisco’ (‘The Cuban Revolution: the US, democracy, human rights and Pope Francis’), Otro lunes. Revista Hispanoamericana de Cultura, [Electronic], 40:10. ISSN-2174-1425
6. López, María E. (2014) ‘Reinaldo Arenas: the spokesman of the invisible community’, in Font, M.A. and Tinajero, A. (eds.) Handbook on Cuban History, Literature, and the Arts: New Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Social Change. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 73–96. ISBN: 978161205679.
7. López, M.E. (2014) ‘Treinta años de conducta impropia: interview with Orlando Jiménez Leal’, Diario de Cuba, [Electronic], 26 July.
8. López, M.E. (2005) ‘Universidades online. Una alternativa al aprendizaje tradicional’, Revista Planeta Humano, Madrid: Planeta Humano S.L. (September), pp. 73–81.  
9. López, M.E. (2005) ‘Las Maras: historia de una generación perdida en Centroamérica’, Revista Planeta Humano, Madrid: Planeta Humano S.L. (April), pp. 30–41.

Other publications

1. With Ryan L. and Dalceggio A (2022), ‘Chaos at Kabul Airport: Lessons must be learned say London Met researchers’, London Metropolitan (27 May).
2. Lopez, María E. (2022), “We are tired of being told it is not a big deal”: Institutional Machismo in Mexico”, London Metropolitan University (26 May).
3. Lopez, María E. (2022), On violence against women in 21^st century women writing. Proofed. A Boydell and Brewer Blog. (22 May).
4. Lopez, María E. (2022), ‘“This is a Mexican problem, not a women’s issue”: necropolitics at the US–Mexican border’. London Metropolitan University. (8 March).
5. Lopez, María E. and Louise Ryan (2021) ‘Bodies at borders: Why it is vital to humanise migrants’, European Politics and Policy (EUROPP-LSE) (2 December)
6. López, M.E. (2021) ‘Political violence against women in the northern Mexican border’ (‘Violencia política contra las mujeres en la frontera norte de México’), Critical Studies of Law and Migration Seminar blog (9 April), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
7. López, M.E. (2020) ‘The lives of Mexico’s maquiladora workers are being put at risk by lax COVID-19 rules and the demands of international trade’, LSE Latin America and Caribbean Blog (25 May). Also published at London Metropolitan University, Experts section (12 June).
8. López, M.E. (2018) ‘Sex trafficking is collateral damage of the fantasy of globalisation in Mexico’, LSE Latin America and Caribbean Blog (26 September).
9. López, M.E. (2018) ‘Femicide in Ciudad Juárez is enabled by the regulation of gender, justice, and production in Mexico’, LSE Latin America and Caribbean Blog (15 February, 2018).

• Visiting Fellow at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre (Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2017–2020)
• Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Security, Intelligence and Governance (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México)
• Member of Tamesis Publishing House editorial board (Latin American social science studies)
• Editor for the Violence in the Hispanic and Lusophone Worlds series in Tamesis Publishing House (Boydell & Brewer LTD)

Dr María López
Reader in Sociology at the School of Social Sciences and Professions and Deputy Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre
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