Building Robust & Inclusive Democracy
Anjuli Fahlberg

Anjuli Fahlberg

Anjuli Fahlberg

Research/Areas of Interest

Social movements; violence and conflict; urban poverty and politics; Latin America; participatory action research

Education

  • PhD, Sociology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States, 2018
  • MA, Sociology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States, 2014
  • BA, Peace & Justice Studies and International Relations, Tufts University, Medford, United States, 2007

Biography

Anjuli N. Fahlberg is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and co-director of the Building Together Research Collective, based in Brazil, El Salvador and Honduras (www.construindojuntos.com). Her research employs an intersectional lens to examine urban violence and social movements across the Americas. She employs a participatory action research (PAR) approach in both ethnographic fieldwork and survey research. Her recent book, Activism under Fire: The Politics of Non-Violence in Rio de Janeiro's Gang Territories (2023, Oxford University Press), documents how activists residing in Rio de Janeiro's "favelas," or informal neighborhoods, mobilize for citizenship rights in a context of armed drug gangs and racist policing. It received the Roberto Reis Book Award from the Brazilian Studies Association and the Best Book Award from the Human Rights Section of the International Studies Association, as well as Honorable Mentions from the Collective Behavior and Social Movement Section of the American Sociological Association and the Global Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She has also studied the impact of the pandemic in Rio's favelas and how favela residents mobilized local aid efforts during the pandemic. Her current project examines the impact of distinct governance models on urban violence and social resilience in Central America, with a focus on El Salvador and Honduras.

Dr. Fahlberg was the recipient of the Best Dissertation Award by the American Sociological Association and the Dissertation Award by the Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the ASA. She has received grants by the Social Science Research Council, the American Association of University Women, and the National Science Foundation, and was awarded the Alma J. Young Emerging Scholar Award by the Urban Affairs Association, among several others.

Dr. Fahlberg was raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After moving to the US, she spent several years working with immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence. For more information, visit Dr. Fahlberg's personal website.