Diane Nelson

Diane Nelson is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. She has worked in Guatemala since 1985. Her research addresses war and genocide, indigenous identity (including Maya-Hackers, Omnilife saleswomen, Ponzi-scheme victims and anti-mining activists), and political movements, as well as horror films and science fiction. Her theoretical interests lie in subject formation, political economy, gender and sexuality, popular culture, and science and technology. Her books include War by Other Means: Aftermath in Post-Genocide Guatemala (co-edited with Carlota McAllister), Reckoning: The Ends of War in Guatemala, and A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala. She is currently working on Who Counts? Quantity’s Qualifications and Mayan Organizing 2.0 addressing forensic science and struggles to both count the dead and account for state violence through reparations as well as other forms of financializing the past, present, future, and life itself.