Researchers from the University of Sheffield have published a new article in Geoforum. The article, entitled ‘Between pacification and dialogue: Critical lessons from Colombia’s territorial peace’, which aims to examine the origins and afterlives of this 'territorial' peace using discourse analysis, archival research and field interviews.
The paper was published by Dr Miguel Kanai (Department of Geography), Dr Melanie Lombard (Department of Urban Studies and Planning), Juan Mario Diaz (Department of Politics), and Henry Staples, a PhD student in the Department of Geography. Henry’s research explores the implementation of the 2016 peace deal between the FARC guerilla group and the Colombian government.
“Luckily for me, over the last few years Sheffield has become something of a hub for Colombia research,” says Henry. “When I first started here in 2017/18, I became involved in a multi-disciplinary research project called Improbable Dialogues.”
The new paper feeds into the Improbable Dialogues project, and unpacks the 'territorial peace' framework which emerged during peace negotiations. It explores links to other geography literature, such as Dr Kanai’s work on the impact of neoliberal economic policies in Latin America, and suggests some areas for future research on territory / peace.
“I was brought on as a co-author to help structure the paper and provide some first-hand insights from my fieldwork with the FARC. The team also allowed me to be the corresponding author, so I could engage with the publishing process from start to finish (responding to reviewers’ comments, making final edits, understanding open access laws etc).
“For what it’s worth, my advice to other PhD students would be to seize opportunities like this, as even if you aren’t set on an academic career, working on the article really helped me develop confidence in my writing style, Writing is also normally pretty solitary and it was good to be part of a team.”
Henry has also had another related piece accepted for publication recently, and has been liaising with UN staff about their new DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration) programmes for post-conflict areas.