- Department, Office, or School
- Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
- Vice Provost
- Academic Affairs
- emailmtorres1@ric.edu
- phone401-456-1970
- location_onRoberts Hall, 408
M. Gabriela Torres is a transformative leader committed to fostering a more diverse and socially just academy. Her work has specialized on the development of strategic program initiatives, global, arts, and science academic center operations, accreditation, research compliance, and DEIB strategic planning and implementation processes in faculty hiring, recruitment, and retention. Dr. Torres’ dedication to innovation in transforming access to learning in higher education grew directly from her award-winning teaching and educational development background. In recognition of her leadership, Dr. Torres was named an American Council on Education Fellow in 2023.
Dr. Torres is an experienced and trained conflict management professional and was the inaugural Ombudsperson for sexual harassment and assault for the American Anthropological Association from 2018-2021. Dr. Torres has been named an adviser to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education as recognition of her expertise and policy work on sexual harassment in the academy. Dr. Torres has been honored for this work by the American Anthropological Association's Gender Equity Award.
As a scholar, she has published over 30 peer–reviewed articles, research reports, and book chapters, in addition to volumes on Marital Rape and Sexual Violence in Intimacy. Most recently, Dr. Torres has published regularly on anti-racist and intercultural teaching and learning, BIPOC mentoring in higher education, and on equity policies. She is currently co-editor in chief of Feminist Anthropology.
Dr. Torres has been sought as an expert witness since 2011 in US and Canadian courts where she has provided country conditions expertise on gender-based, gang, and anti-indigenous violence in Guatemala. Her expert testimony has been used in asylum courts, US District Court, Canadian Federal Court, and NY Criminal Court and Criminal and Juvenile courts in NY and MA.
Dr. Torres’ responsibilities include Graduate Studies, New and Online Academic Programs, Academic Effectiveness and Assessment, Accreditation, Course Scheduling, Academic Leadership & New Faculty Professional Development, Faculty Scholarship, Strategic Planning and Grants. and HSI Academic Initiatives, among others.
Starting in Fall 2024, she serves as Institutional Official supporting the work of the Institutional Review Board, and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Education
Ph.D. Social Anthropology, York University (2004)
M.A. Applied Anthropology, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO- Sede Ecuador) (1995)
B.A. International Relations, University of British Columbia (1993)
Selected Publications
León, Waleska Sanabria, and M. Gabriela Torres. 2024. “Colonial necropolitics in responding to gender-based violence amidst cascading disasters in Puerto Rico.” Feminist Anthropology 5(1): 1–16.
M. Gabriela Torres. “Culture, Violence, and ‘Marriage’ in the Cases of Guatemalan Women’s Asylum in the U.S.” In Gauderman, Kimberly (ed). Practicing Asylum: A Handbook for Expert Witnesses in Latin American Gender- and Sexuality-based Asylum Cases. California: University of California Press, 2023.
Kimberly Gauderman and M. Gabriela Torres. “The Fragility of Particular Social Groups: Rape and LGBTQ Asylum Claims.” In Gauderman, Kimberly (ed). Practicing Asylum: A Handbook for Expert Witnesses in Latin American Gender- and Sexuality-based Asylum Cases. California: University of California Press, 2023.
M. Gabriela Torres. “Beyond Making Statements: The Reflective Practice of Becoming an AntiRacist Educator. Picture a Professor: Intersectional Teaching Strategies for Interrupting Bias about Faculty and Increasing Student Learning, ed. by Jessamyn Neuhaus, 185-200. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2022.
Kathryn J. Holland, Elizabeth Quay Hutchison , Courtney E. Ahrens , M. Gabriela Torres. “Reporting is Not Supporting: Why Mandatory Supporting, not Mandatory Reporting, Must Guide University Sexual Misconduct Policies.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 no. 52 (2021): e2116515118.
Dianna Shandy and M. Gabriela Torres. “Rules Matter: How can professional associations re-map intra-community norms around sexual violence?” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 47 no. 1 (2021): 209-234. 10.1086/715225
Jennifer Burrell, Ellen Moodie and M. Gabriela Torres. “From sparks and embers: Concluding reflections on anthropology, generation, and Central America.” Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 25 (2021): 631-640. 10.1111/jlca.12524
M. Gabriela Torres and Kersti Yllö, eds. Sexual Violence in Intimacy: Implications for Research and Policy in Global Health. London: Routledge, 2020.
Kersti Yllö and M. Gabriela Torres, eds. Marital Rape: Consent, Marriage and Social Change in Global Perspective. London: Oxford University Press, 2016.
M. Gabriela Torres. “Violated Women, Reason, and Lo Político in the Imaginary of the Guatemalan Nation.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 37 no. 3 (2018): 261-274. 10.1111/blar.12777 M. Gabriela Torres. “In the Shadow of the Razor Wire: Class and Insecurity in Guatemala's Urban Core.” Anthropologica 57 no. 1 (2015): 127-137. muse.jhu.edu/article/581035.
M. Gabriela Torres. "The Art and Labor in the Framing of Guatemala's Dead." Anthropology of Work Review 35 no. 1 (2014): 14-24. 10.1111/awr.12027
David Carey Jr. and M. Gabriela Torres. "Precursors to Femicide: Guatemalan Women in a Vortex of Violence." Latin American Research Review 45 no. 3 (2010): 142-164.
Research Interests
Gender based violence, Sexual Harassment, Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education, Feminist Anthropology