Diana Hoyos Gomez

DIANA R. HOYOS GOMEZ, then a graduate student at University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received a grant in April 2017 to aid research on ‘Campesinos and the State: Imagination of the State and Reconfiguration of State Practices in Montes de Maria, Colombia,’ supervised by Dr. Kathleen Musante. This study investigated how violent practices, carried out on campesino communities by state actors during the armed conflict, shape current relationships between communities and the state, as well as how citizens-state relationships and state practices are reshaped in the transition to ‘post-conflict’ in Montes de Mar’a, Colombia. By focusing on the relationships between campesino communities and the state during and in the aftermath of armed conflict 2000-2018, this research examines these questions to understand state building processes in the transition to ‘post-conflict.’ Ethnographic research focused on the long-term impact of state violence carried out on communities during the armed conflict, especially mass arbitrary detentions; the study of an emblematic case in the region where several forms of violence during and after the armed conflict converge with a process of land restitution; and the process of construction of Development Plans with Territorial Focus PDETS, a central aspect of the Peace Accords signed between the government and the FARC guerrillas in 2016. This study provides an understanding of the intersections between the long-term impact of violence on campesino communities and their relationships with the state, continuities and discontinuities of state practices in the transition to ‘post-conflict’ and efforts to reshape citizen-state relationships in rural communities. This research also received funding from the Inter-American Foundation.