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Last updated 19th September 2024

Senior Lecturer in Criminology at The University of Huddersfield (UK). Senior Adviser in Transitional Justice for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), appointed to Colombia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Course Leader MSc in Criminology and International Security 

Member of the British Sociological Association (BSA), the European Society of Criminology (ECS), the British Society of Criminology (BSC) and the International Sociological Association (ISA). I am affiliated with the BSA 'Sociology of Rights' and 'Sociology of Emotions' Study Groups. President of the Research Committee on Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change (RC48) of the International Sociological Association.

Before joining The University of Huddersfield, I was a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Security Studies at Birmingham City University (UK). I have previously worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Leeds (UK), as a Senior Lecturer at EAFIT University (Colombia), as a Lecturer at Javeriana University (Colombia), and as an Associate Expert at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). I have also been a Research Fellow at the Social Research Centre and Popular Education (CINEP) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation (FESCOL).

I hold a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Huddersfield (UK), an MA in Global Citizenship Identities and Human Rights from the University of Nottingham (UK), and a BA (First Class) in Media Studies and Social Communication from Javeriana University (Colombia).

My current research focuses on the relationship between security, conflict, transnational and comparative criminology, global south criminology, multiplatform social justice, and transitional justice from a sociological perspective. It explores how victims of armed conflict and violent contexts are implementing citizen-led strategies to claim human rights and security in public and virtual spheres; and how these methods are affecting the construction of political and cultural memory, dimensions of social recognition, and degrees of solidarity and power in divided societies.

I have explored normative and positive models and integrated sociological theories to understand the impact of crime and violence on society, particularly kidnapping, massacres and extrajudicial executions, taking into account inequality, culture, exclusion, illegality, geopolitical considerations and poverty in order to find explanations regarding the impact of these topics in particular Latin American contexts.

I have also approached network theories to explore the role of transnational actors and multilateral institutions in contexts of high levels of violence. I analysed how transnational political actions and transnational communicative actions can help to restore levels of democracy and human development in divided societies.

I have research experience addressing multi–strategy qualitative approaches. Recent examples include; the development of semi-structured interviews, oral histories and focus groups to complete my doctoral research, the implementation of a participative action research approach (PAR) to understand the cycles of violence and crime in five neighbourhoods of Medellin (Colombia), and the elaboration of collaborative cartographies and time lines with local communities in Colombia and Argentina to explore their mentalities regarding the relationship between peace, territory and human rights.

I undertook structured interviews to comprehend the topics of modern slavery and child soldiers in Colombia, and The Impact of COVID-19 on Gangs and Drug Cartels in Latin America. With the use of visual methods (icons, maps, photography, on-line memes, public demonstrations and murals) I analysed how victims of forced disappearance in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina claimed for their human rights in the public sphere. Recently, I have started to use webmatrix and netnography to identify how victims of armed conflicts use micro blogging (particularly Twitter) to demonstrate and demand rights.

To sum up, my research work emphases the role of citizens, social movements and the third sector to change contexts of insecurity and violence, and how local and national governments can create security strategies having the respect of human rights are a central aspect. As a consequence, I use the theoretical framework of Sociology of Rights to underpin the responsibility of the state to create public policy in order to improve conditions of security and human development.