Tatiana Quintero

Academic and professional background

Education

Since 2023. PhD Student at the GCSC, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Social and Cultural Science Faculty.

2022: Master of Arts (M.A.) in Social Anthropology, University of Münster, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

2019: International Course – Justicia de Saberes: Epistemologías del sur y los saberes nacidos en las luchas, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO).

2016: Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Specialization, Rosario University, Jurisprudence Faculty.

2015: Bachelor Degree in Political Science, Rosario University, Political Science and Government Faculty.

2013: Bachelor Degree in Law, Rosario University, Jurisprudence Faculty.

Experience

Since 02.2024: Scientific Collaborator at the Instituto CAPAZ. Bogotá, Colombia.

08.2019 – 02.2020: Researcher and author of the book Violence, Racism and Socio-Environmental Conflicts: The land dispossession in the Communitarian Council of La Larga y Tumaradó. CINEP/PPP. Bogotá, Colombia.

05.2016 – 08.2019: Protection Assistant. UN Refugee Agency. Apartadó, Colombia.

02.2016 – 05.2016: Professional in Land and Territory. National Unit for Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict. Apartadó, Colombia.

02.2014 – 12.2015: Research Assistant in the project Territorial Impacts of the Armed Conflict in the Territories of the Communitarian Councils of La Larga y Tumaradó and Pedeguita y Mancilla. CINEP/PPP. Bogotá - Apartadó - Riosucio, Colombia.

Academic works

Publications

2024. Feminists Traces on Memory Studies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Kult Online. GCSC, JLU. Book Review: Fonseca Santos, Melody; Hernández Rivas, Georgina; Mitjans Alayón, Tito (Coords.): Memoria y Feminismos: Cuerpos, Sentipensares y Resistencias. Buenos Aires/México: CLACSO/Siglo XXI, 2023. ISBN: 978-987-813-461-1.

2022. The Decolonial Option. Tutorial video. The affect and Colonialism web lab. Free University of Berlin.

Available in: https://bit.ly/3hqampu

2020. Quintero Suárez, T.; Guerrero Home, J.; García Romero, J. Violence, Racism, and Socio- Environmental Conflicts. Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular / Programa por la Paz -CINEP/PPP- ISBN: 978-958-644-282-2,
Bogotá D.C., Colombia.
Available in: https://bit.ly/3doohou

Languages

English, Spanish, German (A2).

Thesis Abstract

Memory and its components have been widely studied by the social sciences. Yet, anthropology has proposed its exploration through the intermingling of cultural, social, and contextual variables. Thus, the discipline gave place to the possibility of including multidisciplinary perspectives and broad methodological scopes.

Hence, from anthropology and political science, this research focuses on a specific branch of memory: collective memory. It adopts the concept since it incorporates a variety of layers that allow the study of cultural subsistence in complex contexts of violence, discrimination, and marginalization. In addition, it can be considered as a mechanism to remember traumatic past events as fragments of a shared history and then, collectively contest the narratives emerging from historical recounts.

Considering a general definition of collective memory as “a social construction constituted through a multiplicity of circulating sign forms, with interpretations shared by some social actors and institutions, and contested by others in response to heterogeneous positions in a hierarchical social field” (French, 2012, p. 349), one can assert that collective memory is a suitable theoretical framework to explore the role of people, grassroots organizations, and communities in post-conflict contexts.

That is one of the reasons why this proposal focused on the Colombian case. Colombia results in an illustrative scenario because its internal conflict context endures a complexity that intermingles a wide range of variables, among them: 1) the role of history and the contrast that collective memory narratives offer to it; 2) the different levels of appropriation of each community and its members about the narratives resulted from collective memory initiatives; and 3) the relevance of them in changing frames such as the one proposed by the Total Peace Law: a new frame emerging as a mechanism to institutionally deal with the impacts, implications, and changes derived from a period of conflict that has extended for seventy years.

In this context, the research addresses the questions of what is the role of collective memory and how does it operate in grassroots organizations and ethnic communities in Colombia regarding political positioning and cultural resistance.

According to the above, the main objective of the research is to explore the collective memory dimension in both indigenous and afro-descendant communities in Colombia. To advance in that goal, the theoretical focus develops a dialogue between reference authors concerning collective memory, such as Maurice Halbwachs and Pierre Nora, as well as Latin American scholars exploring critical thought and decolonial perspectives. Among them, Nina De Friedemman, Jaime Arocha, Eduardo Restrepo, Elizabeth Jelin, Catherine Walsh, and Walter Mignolo.

Nevertheless, the evolution of this inquiry will depend on the methodological design and its effective implementation. For that, Orlando Fals Borda’s contributions are crucial. Mainly, Participatory Action Research (PAR) which reflects the Latin American ethnographic exercise, described as a committed and political practice framed by nation-building contexts (Jimeno, 2004).

Consequently, the research is divided into two stages. The first consists of an archival exploration under the guidelines of Critical Discourse Analysis, to assemble the information the communities have already provided to memory public institutions framed by post- conflict policies. The second, the fieldwork, will be developed under the principles PAR which advocates for hand-in-hand work and learning exchange as vindication of popular knowledges.

This practical and academic exploration points out the importance of collective memory within social sciences. It aims to present a refreshing reflection on the power of narratives and discourses arising from powerless sociocultural spheres to productively confront and dispute the narratives about the past that have configured the world as we know it. It also offers the opportunity to transcend the individuality of social studies to focus on collective action, belonging, and self-positioning.