Dr. Irina Carlota (Lotti) Silber
Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Programs
Director of Strategic Initiatives at CCNY’s Colin Powell School.
Irina Carlota (Lotti) Silber received her PhD from New York University and is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Programs at the Colin Powell School, CCNY. She is also Doctoral Faculty in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Silber is the author of award-winning books on postwar El Salvador including Everyday Revolutionaries (Rutgers 2011), Cotidianidad Revolucionaria (UCA Editores 2018), and After Stories: Transnational Intimacies of Postwar El Salvador (Stanford 2022). She co-edited Higher Education, State Repression, and Neoliberal Reform in Nicaragua (Routledge 2023) and is Co-PI on an NSF ADVANCE award to advance inclusion, diversity, and equity in STEM. Silber’s work spans genres and public scholarship commitments on topics ranging from Anthropology of Central America, Latinx Studies to Disability Studies.
Education
- Ph.D., New York University
- B.A. George Washington University
Courses
- Anthropology of Health & Healing
- Anthropology of Childhood
- Ethnographic Research Methods
- Cross-Cultural Perspectives
- Anthropology and Disability Studies
- Anthropology of War and Trauma
Books:
- 2023 Higher Education at the Crossroads of State Repression and Neoliberal Reform in Nicaragua: Reflections from a University under Fire. Co-edited. Routledge.
- 2023 Finalist, Outstanding Book Award- Council on Anthropology and Education
- 2022 After Stories: Transnational Intimacies of Postwar El Salvador. CA: Stanford University Press
- 2023 Winner APLA Book Prize in Critical Anthropology (Association for Political and Legal Anthropology)
- 2023 Bronze Medal-Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs)
- 2023 Bronze Medal-International Latino Book Awards (Academic/College Level)
- 2023 Honorable Mention-Arthur J. Rubel Book Prize (Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology)
- 2023 Honorable Mention-Victor Villaseñor Best Latino Focused Nonfiction, International Latino Book Awards
- 2018 Cotidianidad Revolucionaria: Género, Violencia y Desencanto en la Posguerra Salvadoreña (Translation with new Preface). San Salvador, El Salvador: UCA Editores [University of Central America Press].
- 2011 Everyday Revolutionaries: Gender, Violence, and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. [International Latino Book Awards, Mariposa Book Award, First Prize for First Book, Non-Fiction by a Latinx Writer]
Refereed Journal Articles & Book Chapters:
- 2019 “Está bien recordar: Stories of the 1.5 Insurgent Generation.” Cultural Anthropology https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1643-esta-bien-recordar-stories-of-the-1-5insurgent-generation.
- 2018 Entangled Aftermaths in El Salvador. In Latin America Since the Left Turn, Tulia Falleti, and Emilio A. Parrado, eds. Pp 326-352. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- 2014 In the After: Anthropological Reflections on Postwar El Salvador. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 19(1): 1-21. (Lead Article)
- 2013 Nanita. Anthropology & Humanism 38(1) 93-94. (Poem)
- 2012 ¿Aguantando hambre o luchando? Identidades 4: 127-146.
- 2006 It’s A Hard Place to Be A Revolutionary Woman. In Engaged Observer: Anthropology, Advocacy and Activism. A. Angel-Ajani and V. Sanford, eds. Pp. 189-211. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
- 2005 Mothers/Fighters/Citizens: Violence and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador. In Violence, Vulnerability and Embodiment: A Gender and History Reader. Anupama Rao and Shani D’Cruze, eds. Pp. 67-93. London: Blackwell. (article reprint)
- 2004a Mothers/Fighters/Citizens: Violence and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador. Gender & History 16/3:561-587.
- 2004b Not Revolutionary Enough?: Community Rebuilding in Postwar Chalatenango. In Landscapes of Struggle: Politics, Society and Community in El Salvador. A. Lauria-Santiago and L. Binford, eds. Pp. 166-186. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Public Scholarship:
- 2018 Cotidianidad revolucionaria. Género, violencia y desencanto en la posguerra salvadoreña.” La Hora de Sofía: UCA Radio.; November.
- 2017 “Posguerra pero nunca posviolencia.” El Faro Académico, March 5.
- 2016 “In the After.” Panoramas. University of Pittsburgh, February 16.
- 2014 “Revolucionarios Cotidianos: Género, Violencia y Desencanto en El Salvador.” El Faro Académico, October 18.
