“Exit Wounds”: A Reading and Conversation with Ieva Jusionyte
The Morrill Memorial Library is honored to welcome author Ieva Jusionyte to talk about her recent book, Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border on Tuesday, March 24 starting at 7:00pm in the Simoni Room.
Firearms play a double role in society: they are instruments of protection as well as sources of threat. Ieva Jusionyte’s new book, Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border (2024), takes a narrative approach to present findings from a multi-sited ethnographic study on the impact of American firearms in Mexico. The book follows the journey of the gun through circuits of exchange—both licit and illicit—from retail shops and gun shows in Arizona and Texas, to the hands of violence workers, both licensed and criminalized, in Mexico, to gun buyback programs and public art installations. By tracing firearms across borders and contexts—their shifting cultural and economic value, discrepancies in legality and legitimacy, and their movement across civilian-military and state-crime divides—Jusionyte illuminates how legal regimes shape the production of violence. Braiding together the stories of people who live and work with guns on both sides of the border and both sides of the law, the book shows how U.S. guns harm not just individual people, but also the health and functioning of Mexico’s political and social systems.
During tonight's program, Jusionyte will read selections from her book and speak about the process of researching and writing, then offer a Q&A. Copies of her book will be available for purchase and signing after the program.
Registration is required for this in-person program; register via the website, or by visiting or calling the Reference Desk at 781-769-0200 x2.
This program is sponsored by the Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau and is presented in collaboration with the Massachusetts Center for the Book.
IEVA JUSIONYTE is an award-winning author, legal anthropologist, and a recipient of MacArthur “Genius” Award. She is the Watson Family University Professor of International Security and Anthropology and Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at Brown University. Born and raised in Lithuania, Jusionyte earned her B.A. degree in political science from Vilnius University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Brandeis University. Jusionyte studies borders, law, and violence, and is the author of three books; her newest book, Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border, won the Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America, PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences and R.R Hawkins Award from the Association of American Publishers, and Nonfiction Honors in the Massachusetts Book Awards. Apart from her scholarly pursuits, Jusionyte is a trained EMT, paramedic, and wildland firefighter, and she spent five years volunteering in fire and rescue departments in Massachusetts, Florida, and Arizona. She lives in Boston.
Event Links
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3504196-0
