Ethnography:Colombia Conflict

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Course Goals & Description How is the Colombian conflict lived day-by-day by its protagonists—human rights activists, guerrillas, paramilitary, members of the military, poor urban dwellers, peasants? What can the ethnographic study of the everyday realities of this conflict tell us, that we cannot learn from more macro-level sociological and political analysis? Anthropologists, filmmakers, sociologists, and oral historians have endeavored over the past fifty years to document the impact of conflict on Colombian society. This course will explore their work. Reading knowledge of Spanish is required. Texts & Readings Readings (on sale at the bookstore): Molano, Alfredo, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia (Haymarket Books, 2005) Ramírez, María Clemencia, Between the Guerrillas and the State: The Cocalero Movement, Citizenship, and Identity in the Colombian Amazon (Duke University Press, 2011) Riaño-Alcalá, Pilar, Dwellers of Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín, Colombia (Transaction Publishers, 2010) Vásquez, María Eugenia, My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary (Temple University Press, 2004) Readings available on line: Fals-Borda, Orlando, Historia doble de la Costa 4: Retorno a la Tierra (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2002) www.bdigital.unal.edu.co/1402/3/01PREL01.pdf Machado, Absalón and Donny Meertens, La tierra en disputa: Memorias de despojo y resistencia campesina en la costa Caribe (1960-2010) (Grupo de Memoria Histórica, 2010) www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co Riaño Alcalá, Pilar, Recordar y narrar el conflicto: Herramientas para reconstruir memoria histórica (Grupo de Memoria Histórica, 2009) www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co Readings available on BlackBoard: Alape, Arturo, Ciudad Bolívar: La hoguera de las ilusiones (Editorial Planeta, 2003) Bonilla, Víctor Daniel, Gonzalo Castillo, Orlando Fals Borda, and Augusto Libreros, Causa popular, ciencia popular: Una metodología del conocimiento científico a través de la acción (La Rosca de Investigación y Acción Social, 1972) Espinosa Menéndez, Nicolás, Política de vida y muerte: Etnografía de la violencia en la Sierra de la Macarena (Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia, 2010) Tapias Hernández, César Augusto, Fumando mañas: Construcción del sentido de la realidad social en un contexto de ilegalidad (Editorial Universidad del Rosario, 2010) Film (through BlackBoard): Gaviria, Victor, La vendedora de rosas (1998) Assignments & Expectations of Students Class presentations Mid-semester essay Research paper What Students Should Know There will be some in-person or Skype meetings with authors. All students must be able to read Spanish and understand spoken Spanish. Class will be held in a bilingual format and written work can be submitted in either language (although you are encouraged to write in the language in which you have better proficiency).