Dr Gwen Burnyeat
About
Gwen Burnyeat is a political anthropologist who has been working on peace, conflict and politics in Colombia for over a decade, studying the perspectives of multiple social groups, from victims of the conflict in war-torn areas (especially Urabá) and social movements, to government officials, guerrilla ex-combatants, and international community representatives in the country.
As well as academic works, she has published widely on Colombia for anglophone media, including the London Review of Books, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Americas Quarterly, The Globe Post, The Conversation, Latin America Bureau, the LSE Latin American and Caribbean Centre Blog, and elsewhere.
She has also extensive practitioner experience in dialogue facilitation, human rights, and conflict observation in Colombia, including with the International Centre for Transitional Justice, Peace Brigades International, and Rodeemos el Diálogo (Embrace Dialogue).
She is available for media consultation on any issue relating to peace, conflict, politics and polarisation in Colombia.
Expertise
- Colombia
- Anthropology
- Colombian peace process
- Colombia internal armed conflict
- Colombian politics
- FARC-EP guerrilla
- Disinformation
Selected publications
- The Face of Peace: Government Pedagogy amid Disinformation in Colombia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2022)
- Chocolate, política y construcción de paz: Una etnografía de la Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó, Colombia. Bogotá: Editorial Universidad del Rosario (2022)
- An anthropology of the social contract: The political power of an idea (2022). Co-authored with Miranda Shield Johansson. Critique of Anthropology, 42(3), 221–237.
- ‘We were not emotional enough’: Cultural liberalism and social contract imaginaries in the Colombian peace process (2022). Critique of Anthropology 42(3), 286-303.
- ‘The Envoy: A Government ‘Peace Pedagogy’ Session in Colombia’s Transition’. In Terrain (2020)
- ‘Peace Pedagogy and Interpretative Frameworks of Distrust: State-Society Relations in the Colombian Peace Process’ (2020). Bulletin of Latin American Research, 39: 37-52
- Chocolate, Politics and Peace-Building: An Ethnography of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia. London; New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2018)
- ‘‘Rupture’ and the State: the ‘Radical Narrative’ of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia’ (2017). In Antípoda: Revista de Antropología y Arqueología, 29: 17-40
- ‘On a Peak in Darién: Community Peace Initiatives in Urabá, Colombia’ (2013). In Journal of Human Rights Practice, 5(3): 435-445
- ‘Una barrera a la paz: polarización en el debate colombiano de víctimas’ (2010). In Revista Javeriana, 768: 30-43
Media experience
Dr Gwen Burnyeat has published widely on Colombia for anglophone media, including the London Review of Books, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Americas Quarterly, The Globe Post, The Conversation, Latin America Bureau, the LSE Latin American and Caribbean Centre Blog, and elsewhere.
Languages
English and Spanish