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Professor Silvia Posocco

Positions held:
  • Professor of Social Anthropology, School of Social Sciences
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    I am a social anthropologist with interdisciplinary research interests in gender and sexuality studies and violence, conflict and genocide studies. I have studied ethnographically insurgent movements in Guatemala, the archives of transnational adoption across sites and temporalities, and most recently, forensic archives, bioinformation and cultures of evidence.

    Highlights

    Office hours

    Flexible and by appointment. Please email me at s.posocco@bbk.ac.uk so that we can set up a date and time to meet online. 

    Web profiles

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Postgraduate Research (PGR) Lead, School of Social Sciences

    Professional memberships

    • American Anthropological Association (AAA)

    • Association of Social Anthropologists of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (ASA)

    • European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)

    • Latin American Studies Association (LASA)

    • Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS)

    ORCID

    0000-0002-2075-1480

  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Social Anthropology, Social Theory and Cultural Analysis
    • Transnational Gender and Sexuality Studies and Theories
    • Violence, Conflict and Genocide
    • The Anthropology of the State and the Law
    • Transnational Adoption Circuits, Documents and Archives
    • Forensic Archives, Biorepositories and Biodata
    • Relations, Subjectivities, Socialities
    • Ethnography
    • Petén, Guatemala; Tabasco, Quintana Roo, Mexico; London, UK.

    Research overview

    My first research monograph on histories of violence and socialities of secrecy in Petén, northern Guatemala, was published in January 2014 by Alabama University Press. Secrecy and Insurgency: Socialities and Knowledge Practices in Guatemala deals with the experiences of guerrilla combatants of the Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (Rebel Armed Forces) in the aftermath of the Peace Accords signed in December 1996 by the Guatemalan government and guerrilla insurgents. The book focuses on 'secrecy' as both sociality and knowledge practice, and demonstrates the relevance of thinking 'gender' in the coalescence of novel objects of analysis in a broad field of contemporary theory. I am committed to long-term ethnographic research in Guatemala. I am currently writing a new monograph, Traces, Remnants, Genocide, on transnational adoption circuits and the traces and remnants of violence, conflict and genocide in the country and the diaspora.

    With Adi Kuntsman (MMU) and Jin Haritaworn (York University, Canada), I edited Queer Necropolitics. With Suhraiya Jivraj (Kent), Sandeep Bakshi (Paris - Diderot) and Paola Bacchetta (UC Berkeley), I coordinated the AHRC-funded Decolonizing Sexualities Research Network until October 2021. Over more than 10 years, we edited Decolonizing Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Interventions, a journal special issue on Decolonial Trajectories, curated a blog and organised numerous global events. Queering Knowledge: Analytics, Devices and Investments After Marilyn Strathern - edited with Paul Boyce (Sussex) and EJ Gonzalez-Polledo (Goldsmiths) - was published in 2020. The Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality - edited with Cecilia McCallum (Federal University of Bahia) and Martin Fotta (Czech Technical University)- was published in 2023. Queer and Trans Life: Anthropological Futures, a new collection in the EASA Series, Berghahn, assembled with EJ Gonzalez-Polledo, Lars Aaberg, Tunay Altay and a terrific group of scholars, is now out. 

    With EJ Gonzalez-Polledo, I have been charting transformations in the field of bioinformation. Our collaborative research on forensic archives, biodata and cultures of evidence is available in numerous journal articles and the edited volume, Bioinformation Worlds and Futures. Our new book, Worlding Biodata: Rendering Life in Complex Systems, was published in 2026. 

    Research Centres and Institutes

    Research clusters and groups

    Research projects

    Data Worlds and Futures: Archives, Bioinformation and Evidence

    Abstract

    This Wellcome Trust Small Research Grant-funded project led by Dr EJ Gonzalez-Polledo and Dr Silvia Posocco (Birkbeck) explores the relation between bioinformation, infrastructures and evidence in relation to forensic archival practices and data processing.

    As body fragments, tissue samples and DNA sequences are progressively transformed into highly mobile and replicable data, bioinformation, that is, information obtained from or about living organisms, raises urgent questions about the entanglement of (life and) death with the materialities and mechanisms of data worlds. This project explores the relation between bioinformation, infrastructures and evidence through a programme of research activities which will involve experts and practitioners in a research network, and produce a new research agenda through collaborative workshops and anthropological research.

    This project will open up major areas of enquiry that will improve public understandings of evidence intersecting of forensic science, genetic profiling, and algorithmic processing and foster new avenues in bioinformation research, data policy and algorithmic governance in the field of health and wellbeing.

    Outcomes

    Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia, eds. (2021) Bioinformation worlds and futures. Routledge Studies in Anthropology. Routledge. ISBN 9780367409456.

    EJ, Gonzalez-Polledo and Silvia, Posocco (2022) Forensic apophenia: sensing the bioinformation archive. Anthropological Quarterly ISSN 0003-5491. (In Press)

    Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (2021) Archives, promises, values: forensic infrastructures in times of austerity. Critique of Anthropology 41 (1), pp. 3-20. ISSN 0308-275X.

    Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (2021) Arquivos, promessas, valores: Infraestruturas forenses em tempos de austeridade. Lugar Comun 59 (1), pp. 122-166. ISSN 1415-8604.

     

    Person, Substance Bodily Capacity: Transnational Adoption and Surrogacy in Times of Violence and Crisis

    Abstract

    This research project is concerned with understanding the relations between war, conflict, structural violence and crisis, and global shifts in the organization and governance of reproduction, specifically through an analysis of transnational adoption and surrogacy. It aims to identify key features and dynamics linked to the sharp decline in transnational adoptions globally and the parallel rise of transnational surrogacy arrangements, through a study of these dynamics across the Guatemalan/Mexican border.

    As flows of adoptees from Guatemala were brought to a halt in late 2006 with the introduction of legislation restricting adoptions to Guatemalan resident nationals and prohibiting all transnational adoptions, surrogacy arrangements in the neighboring Mexican state of Tabasco grew exponentially. The project sought to understand the simultaneous demise of adoptions and growth in surrogacy as transnational dynamics across multiple borders.

    Outcomes

    Posocco, Silvia (2022) Harvesting life, mining death: adoption, surrogacy and forensics across borders. Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 8 (1), pp. 1-19. ISSN 2380-3312.

    Chivalan Carrillo, M. and Posocco, Silvia (2020) Against extraction in Guatemala: multispecies strategies in vampiric times. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 22 (4), pp. 514-532. ISSN 1369-801X.

     

    Post doctoral staff

    • Dr Nic Aaron
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within Birkbeck:
    12

    Previous projects: Dr Fuentes, (Re)Reading the Boundaries and Bodies of Femicide in (Post)War Guatemala, Antipode; Dr Saglam, Memory, Identity and Subjectivity in the Case of Romeika-speaking Communities in Trabzon, Turkey, Anthropology Today; Dr McCloskey-Martinez, Reading Resilience, Exploring Non- normative Modes of Writing and Being, JPS; Dr Gianniri, ‘Out and about’: a Haptic Exploration of Queer and Feminist archives in Post-dictatorship Greece, UBEL, JPS; Dr Moussion, The Domestic in the Violence: Understanding the Experience of Violence beyond Trauma in Contemporary France, article; Dr Nestor, Accounting for the Body: Tracing the Re-enactments, Archives and Remains of Ana Mendieta since 1985, CHASE, Bomb Magazine; Dr Fullam, The Social Life of Mental Health Chatbots, UBEL, book; Dr Lanza Zamanillo, Reclaiming AIDS: Stories of Survivors within a Queer Archive, chapter; Linda Eniola Olanrewaju Adeyemo, Becoming Afro-Spanish: Embodiment, Liminal Belongings and Orphan Consciousness, chapter.

    Current projects: Nadine Chambers, Black and Indigenous Geographies: Archives and Accountability in the Shadow of Canadian Settler Colonialism, with Dr Keenan, chapter; Peroline Ainsworth, Learning from Cooperative Pedagogies in Argentina, with Dr Harman, UBEL; Shane Yishuan Day, The Experience of Covid-19 in Taiwan, with Prof Baraitser & Prof Wan; Lawrence Kilshaw, Conception in Psychoanalysis, with Prof Frosh; Jemma Walton, Surrogacy Memoirs, with Dr Halden, Brief Encounters; Ariel Rodrigo Arciniega Ponce, Mexico's Sexual Liberation Movement and the ‘Gay Cultural Circle’, with Dr Polgovsky Ezcurra, CHASE; Joshua Wallace, Crisis, Chronicity & Care: Long Covid and Asylum Seekers' Experiences, with Prof Baraitser, UBEL; Eduardo De Matos Vega Clarke, Necropolitics and COVID19 in Brazil, with Dr Aragon & Dr Fleetwood; Chris Lehmann, Queering Ageing in the UK, with Dr Brady, UBEL. 

    Current doctoral researchers

    • NADINE CHAMBERS
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Shreds of Law, Ties of Land: Black and Indigenous Geographies, Archives and Accountability in the Shadow of Canadian Settler Colonialism
    • JEMMA WALTON
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
    • SHANE DAY
      Nature of supervision:
      PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Global COVID-19 Pandemic: The Biopsychosocial Model on Behavioural Health from a Cross Cultural Perspective
    • RODRIGO ARCINIEGA PONCE
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Art and Activism: the Gay Cultural Circle and Mexico's Sexual Liberation Movement
    • PEROLINE AINSWORTH
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
    • LINDA ENIOLA OLANREWAJU ADEYEMO
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Becoming Afrospanish: Embodiment, Liminal Belongings and Orphan Consciousness

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • EROL SAGLAM
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Constitutive Ambiguities: Subjectivities in the Case of Romeika-speaking Communities in Trabzon, Turkey
      Awarded:
      2017
    • KATARINA NESTOR
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Accounting for the Body: Tracing the Feminist Archives of Ana Mendieta 1992-2016
      Awarded:
      2024
    • ADELINE MOUSSION
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Awarded:
      2024
    • EOIN FULLAM
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Awarded:
      2024
    • LEMONIA GIANNIRI
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Coming out and about: Psychoanalytic frameworks, family and desire in Greek Homosexual, Transgender, Feminist Press and Diaspora Activism from 1975 to 2005
      Awarded:
      2023
    • FERNANDO LANZA ZAMANILLO
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Reclaiming AIDS: Stories of Survivors within a Queer Archive
      Awarded:
      2024

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • Independent Research Module
    • Social Sciences Doctoral Seminar
    • Bodies
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    Book

    Book section

    • Posocco, Silvia (2027) The shadow circuits: transnational adoption, forced disappearance and genocide in Guatemala. In: Sanford, V. and Gruner, W. (eds.) Genocide and Resistance in Guatemala. Genocide, Political Violence, Human Rights. New Brunswick, Canada: Rutgers University Press. (In Press)
    • Posocco, Silvia and Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Aaberg, L. and Altay, T. (2025) Introduction: Queer and Trans life. In: Posocco, Silvia and Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Aaberg, L. and Altay, T. (eds.) Queer and Trans life: Anthropological Futures. EASA Series. New York, U.S. and Oxford, UK: Berghahn. pp. 1-26. ISBN 9781805398585.
    • Posocco, Silvia and Villérs, S. (2024) Counterfeit: disruption and creation in the files of transnational adoptions from Guatemala to Europe. In: Cearns, J. and Beech, C. (eds.) Contraband Cultures: Reframing Smuggling across Latin America. London, UK: UCL Press. pp. 1-26. ISBN 9781800087248. (In Press)
    • Posocco, Silvia and McCallum, C. and Fotta, M. (2023) Introduction to the Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. In: McCallum, C. and Posocco, Silvia and Fotta, M. (eds.) Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (In Press)
    • Bakshi, S. and Semmalar, G. and Chivalán Carrillo, M. and Rage, R. and Aryakrishnan, R. and Posocco, Silvia and Jivraj, S. and Bakshi, S. (2022) Decolonial queer knowledges: aesthesis, memory and practice. In: Tate, S.A. and Gutiérrez Rodríguez, E. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Race and Gender. Palgrave. pp. 569-590. ISBN 9783030839468.
    • Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (2021) Bioinformation worlds and futures: Introduction. In: Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Bioinformation Worlds and Futures. Routledge Studies in Anthropology. Routledge. ISBN 9780367409456.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2020) Curfew: sensing Post-politics, sensing the Undercommons. In: Mendes, A. and Cocco, G. (eds.) The Work of Lines. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Autografia. pp. 152-164. ISBN 9786555310000.
    • Boyce, P. and Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (2019) Queering knowledge: an introduction. In: Boyce, P. and Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Queering Knowledge: Analytics, Devices and Investments After Marilyn Strathern. Theorizing Ethnography: Concept, Context, Critique. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138230989.
    • Franklin, S. and Boyce, P. and Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (2019) Conceptuality in relation: Sarah Franklin in conversation with Silvia Posocco, Paul Boyce, and EJ Gonzalez-Polledo. In: Boyce, P. and Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Queering Knowledge: Analytics, Devices and Investments After Marilyn Strathern. Theorizing Ethnography: Concept, Context, Critique. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138230989.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2019) Postplurality: An Ethnographic Tableau. In: Boyce, P. and Gonzalez-Polledo, E.J. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Queering Knowledge: Analytics, Devices and Investments after Marilyn Strathern. Theorizing Ethnography. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138230989.
    • Bakshi, S. and Jivraj, S. and Posocco, Silvia (2016) Introduction - decolonizing sexualities: transnational perspectives, critical interventions. In: Bakshi, S. and Jivraj, S. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Decolonizing Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Interventions. Oxford, UK: Counterpress.
    • Bakshi, S. and Jivraj, S. and Posocco, Silvia (2016) (Decolonizing) the ear of the other: subjectivity, ethics and politics in question. In: Bakshi, S. and Jivraj, S. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Decolonizing Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Interventions. Oxford, UK: Counterpress. pp. 249-263. ISBN 9781910761021.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2014) On the queer necropolitics of transnational adoption in Guatemala. In: Haritaworn, J. and Kuntsman, A. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Queer Necropolitics. Social Justice. Oxford, UK: Routledge. pp. 72-90. ISBN 9780415644761.
    • Haritaworn, J. and Kuntsman, A. and Posocco, Silvia (2014) Introduction: queer necropolitics. In: Haritaworn, J. and Kuntsman, A. and Posocco, Silvia (eds.) Queer Necropolitics. Social Justice. Oxford, UK: Routledge. pp. 1-28. ISBN 9780415644761.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2012) Gender identity. In: Evans, M. and Williams, C. (eds.) Gender: The Key Concepts. Routledge Key Guides. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415669610.
    • Palacios, Margarita and Posocco, Silvia (2011) War and the politics of sexual violence. In: Seidman, S. and Fischer, N. and Meeks, C. (eds.) Introducing the New Sexuality Studies, 2nd Edition. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415781251.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2004) Butch. In: Eadie, J. (ed.) Sexuality: The Essential Glossary. Essential Glossary Series. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 22-24. ISBN 9780340806753.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2004) Stone butch. In: Eadie, J. (ed.) Sexuality: The Essential Glossary. Essential Glossary Series. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 67-68. ISBN 9780340806753.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2004) Butch/femme. In: Eadie, J. (ed.) Sexuality: The Essential Glossary. Essential Glossary Series. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 149-149. ISBN 9780340806753.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2004) Female masculinity. In: Eadie, J. (ed.) Sexuality: The Essential Glossary. Essential Glossary Series. London, UK: Hodder Arnold. pp. 152-153. ISBN 9780340806753.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2004) Passing. In: Eadie, J. (ed.) Sexuality: The Essential Glossary. Essential Glossary Series. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780340806753.
    • Posocco, Silvia (2004) Packing. In: Eadie, J. (ed.) Sexuality: The Essential Glossary. Essential Glossary Series. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780340806753.

    Editorial

    Monograph

  • Business and community

    Business and community

    Outreach

    Advisory Board Member, Decolonizing Sexualities Network

    Member, Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence, Guildhall School of Music and Drama