Profile
Identity development under conditions of organised violence.
Working at the intersection of developmental psychology, criminology, peacebuilding and narrative studies, my research seeks to understand the processes through which violent identities emerge and the interventions that enable prevention, disengagement and reintegration.
Over the past fifteen years, I have conducted participatory and ethnographic research with former child soldiers, gang members, young people in the justice system and other conflict-affected young people across Colombia and Latin America.
My research investigates how children and teenagers construct identities, negotiate belonging, develop moral worlds and imagine future possibilities in environments shaped by armed conflict, organised crime and social exclusion.
Approach
Research that moves between theory and practice.
My research combines ethnography at the edge with participatory methods. I work in places where state institutions, organised violence and social exclusion overlap, adapting fieldwork to conditions of restricted access, distrust and risk.
I specialise in designing participatory methods with young people in contexts of social exclusion. Creative Autobiography, participatory video and Transformative Youth Journalism enable young people to examine their experiences, shape the research process and produce knowledge rather than being treated only as research subjects.
This work has also generated practice-informed frameworks including Narrative Security, Narrative Prevention and TTI (Transition–Transformation–Inclusion).
TTI connects transitions away from violence with narrative transformation and meaningful social inclusion. These approaches examine how developmental narrative practice can strengthen identity, agency, civic participation and future orientation while reducing vulnerability to recruitment and supporting disengagement and reintegration.
The work is characterised by a commitment to translating developmental research into policy and practice and to producing knowledge with young people whose voices are rarely heard in research, policy or public debate.
Teaching
Teaching that connects theory to real-world problems.
I currently teach Analysis of Internal Armed Conflict and Children, Crime and Conflict at Universidad del Rosario. My teaching takes an interdisciplinary and problem-solving approach, connecting theory to real-world case studies and the experiences of real people.
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