Lucía Isabel Stavig, PhD, MS, MA

Associate Scholar

  •  Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Latin American and Latin Studies | University of Pennsylvania
  •  Peru
  •   Indigenous Health | Reproductive Justice | Women's health

Languages: English (Fluent), Spanish (Fluent), Quechua (Intermediate)

Bio statement

Dr. Lucía Isabel Stavig
Postdoctoral Fellow “Dispossessions in the America" in CLALS
I am broadly interested in Indigenous health, reproductive health policy, reproductive justice, and Indigenous futures. Currently, I am involved in the rehabilitation of Mosoq Pakari Sumac Kawsay/A New Dawn for Good Living, an Indigenous women-run healing center outside Cusco, Perú, that serves Quechua women who were forcibly sterilized in the 1990s. I am a member of three international research and legal teams supporting the efforts of sterilized Indigenous women in Peru, Canada, the United States, South Africa, and Indonesia to seek justice and reparations in health.

Recent global health projects

I am currently involved in the rehabilitation of an Indigenous-women-run healing center in Anta, Cusco, Perú. The center serves women who were forcibly sterilized under the National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (1996-2000) in Peru. The healing center helps women heal from illnesses related to their forced sterilization, such as mancharisqa or susto. While the symptoms are similar to PTSD, the PTSD diagnosis is not capacious enough to hold the spiritual aspect of this illness.
I am also a part of several global research teams focusing on the forced sterilization of Indigenous women. One project includes survivors from Peru, Canada, and South Africa. Another includes women from Peru, Canada, and Indonesia. Both projects seek to support the organization, activism, and health of forcibly sterilized women.

Selected publications

Forthcoming "Mosoq Pakari Sumac Kawsay (A New Dawn for Good Living): Women Healing Body and Community in the Andes." ANDINXS: Decoloniality, Gender, and Contemporary Social Transformation in the Andes (Rebecca Irons and Phoebe Martin, eds.): London: UCL Press

2021. “Una Mirada al libro”
Perú: Las Esterilizaciones forzadas, en la década del terror: Acompañando la batalla de las mujeres por la verdad, la justicia y las reparaciones (Alberto Chirif, ed)


Lima: International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) y Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (DEMUS)
ISBN: 978-87-93961-36-4

2022c Unwittingly Agreed: Fujimori, Neoliberal Governmentality and the Inclusive Exclusion of Indigenous Women. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 17(1): xx-xx, special issue on The Persistence of Race in Peru: Intersectionality, Power, and Coloniality. Published online 8/2021 https://doi.org/10.1080/17442222.2021.1935683

Una Mentira y Miles de Verdades  (La Madre)

"Yo Me Quedo en Casa": Reflections on quarantine in the Peruvian Andes  Institute for the Study of the Americas | UNC at Chapel Hill

Peru: Las Esterilizaciones en la década del terror: Acompañando la batalla de las mujeres por la verdad, la justicia, y las reparaciones

Experiencing Corona Virus in the Andes

Last Updated: 07 October 2022