An Evening with Dr. Adam Baird

Presented by Books & Books and FIU's Latin American and Caribbean Center.
🎟 This event is FREE and open to the public, and books will be available for purchase the night of the event! An RSVP grants general entry, but seating is not guaranteed, so please try and show up early. Please RSVP only if you intend to join us. Can't make the event?

When he visited in 2011, sociologist Adam Baird wondered what the Bloods and Crips were doing in Southside Belize City. He soon discovered that migrant Belizean members of colors gangs from South Central Los Angeles were deported there in the 1980s. Once established “back home,” membership in the Bloods and Crips was seen as an aspirational pathway to manhood for the urban underclass.
From South Central to Southside charts the genesis and evolution of a transnational gang culture. Baird provides firsthand interviews with gang members and “narco” families and explains the surprising source of Belize City’s severe violence and skyrocketing homicide rates. He identifies gang violence in the U.S. and Belize as stemming from populations blighted by historical, brutal inequality and marginalization. Analyzing the gendered dynamics as young men and women face the temptations, risks, and dangers of gang life, Baird shines a light on “chronic vulnerability" in Belize City.

Dr Adam Baird is a sociologist, gang researcher and masculinities expert, focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean. He has published extensively on gangs and directed research projects across Latin America and the Caribbean. Recently he investigated the root causes of homicide booms in the Caribbean and Central America and co-developed a handbook with the UN to profile illicit ammunition in violent urban contexts. He currently works at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).

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