Dr. Marcia Esparza earned her baccalaureate (Summa Cum Laude) at Hunter College and her doctoral degree in Sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY. She has also undertaken human rights courses in France and Switzerland. Dr. Esparza’s research areas include state violence, genocide and memory-silence in the aftermath of mass killings. Her research experience includes her work for the United Nations’ sponsored Truth Commission in Guatemala. Dr. Esparza is the Founder and Director of the Historical Memory Project, a forum for documenting state violence in Latin America, paying particular attention to human rights abuses against indigenous population in Latin America. She has presented her research in Athens, Greece and most recently, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Among her current research projects is the examination of Cold War perpetrators’ memories in Chile. She has published in leading academic journals. Most recently she co-edited State Violence and Genocide in Latin American: The Cold War Years (Routledge, 2009) that explores political violence and genocide in South American during the Cold War, in light of the United States' hegemonic position on the continent.