Kimberly Theidon received her Masters in Public Health and Ph.D. in medical anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has a longstanding interest in the impact of violence, poverty and discrimination on people's lives and well being. In the
United States she has worked in the mental health, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health fields, directing health education programs and collaborating on several National Institute on Mental Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse funded research projects.
In addition to her work in the United States, Dr. Theidon has conducted activist research in Latin America for over a decade. Her forthcoming book, Intimate Enemies: Violence and Reconciliation in Peru (University of Pennsylvania Press, Spring 2012) draws upon extensive qualitative research on political violence, trauma, religious movements and transitional justice in post-war Peru. Her comparative community-based study of the micropolitics of reconciliation practiced at the communal and intercommunal levels identifies various factors that facilitate - or hinder - the reconstruction of social relationships and coexistence in the aftermath of fratricidal violence. Her work thus provides insights into local level peace building in other post-conflict societies.
From 2001-2003 Dr. Theidon directed a research project on community mental health, reparations and the politics of reconciliation with the Ayacuchan office of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A book based upon this research, Entre Prójimos: el conflicto armado interno y la política de la reconciliación en el Perú, was published by the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in 2004. Entre Prójimos was awarded the 2006 Premio Iberoamericano Book Award Honorable Mention for outstanding book in the social
sciences by the Latin American Studies Association.
Dr. Theidon is currently working on two books. In After the Truth: Legacies of Sexual Violence in Peru, she adds an
important comparative component to the new wave of scholarship on sexual
violence during armed conflict. As Elisabeth Wood has persuasively
argued, there is tremendous variation in the use, forms and extent of sexual
violence during war. Investigating this variation moves
beyond essentializing arguments about men, guns and testosterone: understanding
variation allows us to identify those factors that encourage — and may serve to
limit — the deployment of sexual violence in the context of war. In addition to offering a case study of
sexual violence during Peru’s internal armed conflict, Dr. Theidon's book traces the
legacies of that violence by working with several groups markedly absent in the
literature on sexual violence and its aftermath: children born as a result of rape,
as well former soldiers and Shining Path militants who provide important perpetrator
perspectives on the use of sexual violence.
In Pasts Imperfect: Working with Former Combatants in Colombia, Dr. Theidon draws upon her research on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program in Colombia. She has focused on Bogotá, Medellín and Turbo-Apartado, working not only with the ex-combatants but the communities to which they return. In this multi-sited research, Dr. Theidon has emphasized the reintegration phase, convinced that the unit of analysis and intervention must move beyond the demobilized combatants themselves to understand the complex dynamics of social relationships and local peace-building efforts.
Dr. Theidon is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology at Harvard University.