Marta-Laura Suska

Contact: suska@wisc.edu
Nationality: German
Institution: University of Wisconsin – Madison

Short Bio:

Marta-Laura Suska is a PhD Candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Marta is currently conducting her dissertation research on new police practices in Rio de Janeiro and Recife, funded by the SSRC Drugs, Security and Democracy Fellowship. Using ethnographic methods Marta wants to shed light into the changing relationship between favela residents and police officers. Before coming to UW-Madison, Marta completed a Master of Philosophy in Latin American Studies at the University of Oxford. She grew up in Poland, Greece, and Germany and has spent several years working and studying in different cities in Brazil prior to entering graduate school.

Thanks to the Scott Kloeck Jenson International Internship Award, Marta also volunteers at the Igarapé Institute in Rio de Janeiro, where she works on the development of a Child Security Index (CSI) – a diagnostic tool that spatially maps how children experience violence in favelas, aiming to prevent violence against children in fragile and conflict affected settings. In her free time Marta´s passion is Yoga and she offers free classes in the favela where she lives.