Ñusta Carranza Ko
associate professor
School of Public and International Affairs
Additional Roles:
director, M.A. in Global Affairs and Human Security
Contact Information:
Phone: 410.837.5344
E-mail: nko@ubalt.edu
Ph.D., Purdue University
M.A., New York University
M.A., University of Windsor
B.A., McGill University
view Prof. Carranza Ko's
C.V.
view Prof. Carranza Ko's
website
Ñusta Carranza Ko's research focuses on gendered dimensions of human rights and transitional justice that expand across the regions of East Asia (South Korea) and South America (Peru). Most recently, she served as the editor (and contributor) for the New Ways of Solidarity with Korean Comfort Women published in June 2023 with Palgrave Macmillan. This edited volume derived from the workshop/conference grant Carranza Ko obtained from the Academy of Korean Studies, which led to the organization of the Virtual Conference on Comfort Women held at the University of Baltimore in May 2022.
Currently, she is working on her completing her book manuscript on the violations of Indigenous peoples' rights in Peru, examining coercive sterilizations, making space for victim-survivors' voices, and identifying various angles of analysis that involve Indigenous methodology, decolonial framing, and gender-centric visions. She also has an article specifically on reparations related to the coercive sterilization of Indigenous women in Peru forthcoming in Violence: An International Journal
, and she is working with co-collaborators in examining the same case from a more health-based angle for a health journal. Additionally, she has a forthcoming encyclopedia entry on East Asian Human Rights with
Oxford Research Encyclopedia.
Her previous on making the case for genocide (related to the question of Indigenous women who were coercively sterilized) has been published in
Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal
(2020) and the gendered and intersectional aspect of the case has been published as a chapter publication with an edited human rights book
Human Rights as Battlefields: Changing Practices and Contestations
(2018). Along with this work on human rights, she has published her first solo-authored book on human rights, international norms, and transitional justice
Truth, Justice, and Reparations in Peru, Uruguay, and South Korea (2021; Palgrave Macmillan). Additionally, she has completed research on truth-commissions and memory building initiatives, and truth-commission and norm compliance related work on South Korea. One of these studies published in
Memory Studies was selected as the winner of the 2021 Zumkehr Prize in Public Memory Scholarship .
Carranza Ko has also been involved in research that extends across disciplines. This includes the studies on Indigeneity, identity, and post-colonial dynamics of power ( Indigenous Futures and Learnings Taking Place, 2020; Crecimos Antinegros en America Latina y el Caribe
(Editorial Abya Yala, 2022)); the impact of Asian migration on Peruvian national identity (published in the Journal of Chinese Overseas (2017)); and survey based field research exploring the impact of Korean culture in Brazil and Peru, funded by a grant of the Academy of Korean Studies and which findings were published in two interdisciplinary journals.
Along with her research, Carranza Ko enjoys teaching graduate and undergraduate courses across sub-fields of Global Affairs and Human Security, International Relations, and Comparative Politics. Most recently she received the 2022-2023 Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT) Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2022-2023 Mental Health Ally awards from the University of Baltimore. Additionally, she was selected as the recipient for the Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell Mentoring Award from the American Political Science Association Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas in the Profession. She was also named Eubie Mentor of the Year (2021) Award from the University of Baltimore.
To further advance her knowledge and improve her teaching approach, Carranza Ko is currently working on a study (in collaboration with a librarian) about the impact of incorporating open educational resources and open education pedagogical approaches (e.g., renewable assignments that serve social justice purposes) in undergraduate political science research methods courses. She has also applied and completed the Certificate in Open Educational Practices from the University of Minnesota in 2022 and has published in the Journal of Political Science Education (2018) on using simulations to encourage active student engagement in international relations. This work became the basis of the book Game of Thrones and the Theories of International Relations with Dr. Laura Young, released on Dec. 15, 2019.