Diana Hoyos Gómez, Ph.D.
Her research focuses on political violence and state building ‘from below’ in rural areas in the post-conflict transition in Colombia. This study relies on ethnographic fieldwork in campesino communities in the region of Montes de María. She examines forms of political violence carried out in campesino communities by state actors during the armed conflict and the long-term effects of that violence on campesinos and their relationships with the state. She analyzes how citizen-state relationships and encounters with state actors are shaped in rural areas in the context of processes centered on the victims of the armed conflict and the implementation of the peace accords between the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas. She also examines continuities of violence in campesino communities in the post-conflict transition.
Her research contributes to scholarship on the ethnography of the state, political violence, and post-conflict transitions. Specifically, it contributes to the understanding of state building from below and dynamics of continuity and change in post-conflict contexts. Her work has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Inter-American Foundation. She is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled Between Violence and Peace: Building and Experiencing the State in Rural Communities in the ‘Post-conflict’ Transition in Colombia.
She has also conducted research on organizational processes of women and victims of armed conflict, local democracy, and memory in Colombia. She has taught courses on political theory, research methodology, introduction to cultural anthropology, and violence and memory in Latin America.