Birding in Ruins: Multispecies Encounters and the Ecologies of Evidence
As we walked by some of the former shrimp ponds in an abandoned aquaculture farm, we approached a scene I easily overlooked until Julian asked me to document…
Tag: Colombia
Toxicity, Violence, and the Legacies of Mercury and Gold Mining in Colombia
Stubborn substances and toxic legacies Toxic substances are often portrayed as stubborn molecules that resist being restricted to the places where we would like to contain them in…
Counting on Montane Birds: Biologists, Verticality, and Territorial Defense in Colombia
This piece is about the unforeseen and sometimes overlooked connection between (i) birds living in the forests of Colombia’s high tropical Andes, (ii) local biologists supporting an anti-mining…
Alex Fattal on his book, Shooting Cameras for Peace
interview by Camilo Ruiz Sanchez https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780873658713 Camilo Ruiz Sanchez: It shook me to learn that the archive has almost disappeared and that what w…
Government Peace Pedagogy in Colombia
In a bid to counter disinformation surrounding the peace process, the Colombian government embarked on an ambitious public education campaign. But their rational approach was powerless in the…
Resisting Psychiatric Temporalities in “Post-Conflict” Colombia
Post-traumatic stress disorder fails to account for the psychosocial issues that arise in the wake of peace. We need nonpathological frameworks to give FARC ex-combatants the support they…
Lesley Gill: Can the Left Revive the ‘Pink Tide’ amid a Global Pandemic?
As Covid-19 has washed over Latin America like a tsunami and the pillars of shaky economies have shuddered under lockdowns, the priority of profits over public welfare stands…
In the Journals – Policing and Discrimination
George Floyd protest signs at the Ottawa Courthouse by Janderson L. via wikimedia Welcome back to In the Journals! This ongoing series aims to bridge conversations that are…
Adam James Moore: The human cost of city upgrading in ‘pro-poor’ Medellín
On 1st March 2018, a group of protestors blocked a dual-carriageway in front of Acevedo Metro (and Metro cable line) Station in the North of Medellín, Colombia. Those…
When Coronavirus Meets an Armed Conflict
Death and Dying in Colombia During the COVID-19 Pandemic MARÍA FERNANDA OLARTE-SIERRA Not all dead bodies are the same, just as not all deaths are equal. Some dead…
STS and Electoral Politics
In the context of the upcoming US presidential election and increasing evidence of the importance of voting infrastructure, this week we revisit past posts that highlight the key…
In the Journals – Prisons and Pandemics
Prisoners’ Round by Vincent Van Gogh via wikimedia Welcome back to In the Journals! My name is Ally, I am a graduate student beginning a Master’s in Anthropology at…
The militarization of life under war, “post-conflict,” and the COVID-19 crisis
Overlapping experiences of confinement Like many others in Colombia, Nairys[1] is a campesina for whom the experience of confinement has been one of dramatic disruption. Marked by restricted…
Zika, abortion, and care: the work that falls to women beyond the epidemic
Este contenido está disponible en español aquí. Feminist studies in geography, anthropology, and public health have indicated that women do more work during epidemics in terms of prevention…
Mine Detection Dog ‘Unit’: More Than Humans in the Humanitarian World
How to “clean” and “liberate” contaminated territories occupied by remnants of war? How to perceive and remove explosive devices specifically designed to evade detection? How to remedy and…
#ExistenceOnSearch: Multispecies encounters and knowledge dialogue at the in-between space
Este contenido está disponible en español aquí. #BecomingBioDiverse Photograph by Felipe Villegas. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Image courtesy of the aut…
Alex Fattal on his book, Guerrilla Marketing
Interview by Winifred Tate https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo29202793.html Winifred Tate: The title, Guerrilla Marketing, evokes advertising, and in fact Amazon lists a number…
In the Journals, January-February 2019
From: Diane M. Nelson, “Low Intensities,” Current Anthropology 60, no. S19 (February 2019): S122-S133. Welcome back to In the Journals, a brief look at just a few…
Tweaking Narratives of War
Este contenido está disponible en español aquí. Stories of war and violence have permeated the daily life of Colombians for more than half a century. However, in the…
“Cocaine Cowboys: Reloaded” (2014): Reversing Empire and the 1980s’ Drug War
Miami, and what became a Miami aesthetic, was probably one of the most distinctive and memorable features of the 1980s in North America. Hit shows like Miami Vice…
Inhabiting Public Space: Guerrilla Music on YouTube
Este contenido está disponible en español aquí. *Many of the names and places mentioned below have been changed.* While the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Revolutionary…
Unearthing Knowledge: Forensic Anthropology and Technologies of Memory
What is commonly known as the Colombian conflict refers to more than six decades of enduring violence. During these years, a number of peace agreements have been signed…
Seeing like a miner: The joys and menaces of informal gold extraction in Chocó, Colombia
by Jesse Jonkman ‘Let’s not fool ourselves, the Colombian state always tries to shut the door to the poor man in order to lead him to war.’ Manuel*…
Colombia’s referendum to end a 50 years Cold War
by Lucía Arcoiris © Felipe Chica Jimenez Colombia has lived an internal conflict for more than 50 years. Since 2012, peace dialogues with FARC, the largest ongoing guerrilla…