Alejandra Gaviria-Serna
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
For the past 20 years, my academic, professional and volunteer work and my creative practice have focused on the defence of human rights, peacebuilding, the reconstruction of historical memory, truth-telling and aesthetic, artistic and cultural expressions amidst armed conflicts. From the 2000s onwards, I have taken on leadership roles where I strived to share my knowledge and work collaboratively with communities impacted by violence. These experiences and my work in the field of human rights became foundational and critical motivators for advancing my scholarly career and program of research. I realized the importance of linking my activist work with a process of academic reflection, which enables me to have a deep understanding of the social, historical and political dynamics of armed conflicts and mass violence, their structural causes and long-term effects, the everyday survival practices and the strategies to cope and transform the present. Thus, undertaking doctoral studies and developing my research program is a milestone in my career because it allows me the time and space to continue strengthening and consolidating my reflections, questions, projects and proposals from theoretical, interdisciplinary and activist fields.
Why did you decide to study at UBC?
I decided to pursue my doctoral studies at UBC because the Social Justice Institute provides a stimulating interdisciplinary academic environment and a theoretical and methodological foundation to advance my studies. The approach of the Institute of Social Justice allows us to think and develop doctoral studies as a process not only academic but also as a process of reflection connected and committed to our current world and the possibility of intervening in it. In addition, I would have the possibility of having as a research supervisor a person who has vast experience and knowledge in my field and has supported my PhD process. Dr. Pilar Riaño-Alcala is a world-renowned scholar in historical memory reconstruction in contexts of mass violence, focusing on the affected communities by the violence and with a long experience in arts-based and Latin-American Participatory Action Research methodologies.
In particular, the Memory and Justice Studies research stream, led by my supervisor Dr. Pilar Riaño-Alcala and committee member Dr. Erin Baines, has developed innovative approaches to questions on the rights to memory and justice in conflict contexts that will significantly strengthen my analysis. Finally, my PhD allowed me to participate as a Research Assistant coordinating the exhibitions and multimedia projects in the Transformative Memory International Network, an SSHRC Partnership Grant, co-led by Dr. Riaño and Dr. Erin Baines. The partnership fosters a global network of scholars, artists and community-based memory workers engaged with historical memory work and social justice commitments in contexts affected by massive violence, dispossession, displacement and oppression, such as genocide, dictatorships, plantation slavery and settler colonialism. Being part of this network and coordinating some creative memory work projects is a unique opportunity to learn about memory and justice studies in other latitudes as well as gain meaningful experience in my research realm.
