Elizabeth Wirtz is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University. A cultural anthropologist, her research centers on refugees/forced migration, humanitarianism in relief and development, sexual and gender-based violence, reproductive/maternal health, human-centered design in technology and engineering, and STEM higher education. She has worked with international organizations like Engineers Without Borders and the International Rescue Committee on humanitarian and development projects. She has served as a chair of the Gender Based Violence Topical Interest Group of the Society for Applied Anthropology and as a board member for the Society for Medical Anthropology.
Disability, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Female genital mutilation/circumcision/FGC, Forced marriage, Gang-related violence/non-state actors, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, LGBTQ, Likelihood of destitution or homelessness, Mental illness, Political persecution, Religious discrimination or persecution, Risk of retaliation, Sexual abuse/assault, Specialized medical services, Sufficiency of protection, Trafficking, Tribal discrimination or persecution, Violence against children/child abuse, persecution of queer people in East Africa in general (outside of Somalia and Kenya)
The core of my anthropological research centers on issues of health, gender, and violence in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. I have been working closely with refugees and asylum seekers in East Africa since 2008.
(1) Wirtz, Elizabeth (2022). “Queering the NGO/State Binary: On Governing Stateless Peoples.” in Female is to Male as NGO is to State: Gendered Analyses of Nongovernmentality. Eds. Andrea Timmer and Elizabeth Wirtz. Berghahn Books.
(2) Wirtz, Elizabeth. (2015). “Bureaucratic Bindings: Refugee Resettlement and Intimate Partner Abuse.” in Applying Anthropology to Gender Based Violence: Global Responses, Local Practices. Eds. Jennifer Wies and Hillary Haldane. Lexington Books: Lanham, Maryland. p. 29-43.