from pbs.org

from pbs.org

Professor Ellie Schemenauer from the UW–Whitewater Department of Womens Studies spoke to our Latin American Studies class on Oct. 17.

Professor Schemenauer researches women and narcotics trafficking in Latin American and the Caribbean area. Some of her research was conducted in South Florida with the cooperation of drug enforcement officers. In the her doctoral thesis, Professor Schemenauer argued that notions of what it means to be a woman figure into the way the so-called “War on Drugs” is both conducted and talked about by the personnel engaged in this so-called war.  Her interviews also shed light on the lives of the women transporting drugs, which is a flesh-and-blood aspect of this problem that more visible policy discussions and crime data have overlooked.