The GIFK was founded to study the complexities of the Colombian conflict: a conflict that has gone through various phases, whose main actors repeatedly transforms themselves, where armed and political actors constantly and informally interact, crime and conflict are intrinsically linked, and where, as a result, a peaceful equilibrium is anything but reality. It is our conviction that to understand such persistence in high levels of violence and conflict – far from a unique phenomenon globally – only interdisciplinary research offers the tool kit to make developments intelligible that incorporate, social, legal, political, and economic transformations and evolutions. The aim is to build a study group that adheres to those interdisciplinary principles and collaboratively explores cases of violence beyond Colombia and Latin America.

Jan Boesten:

Jan Boesten is a DFG Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Latin American Studies (LAI) at the Freie Universität Berlin, as well as an Associate Member of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. His work has appeared in the Latin American Research Review (LARR) and Colombia Internacional, Precedente, and several edited volumes. The book, Constitutional Origin and Norm Creation in Colombia: Discursive Institutionalism and the Empowerment of the Constitutional Court, based on his PhD research, has been published with Routledge. His current research, funded by a DFG grant, compares peace processes in Colombia in search for institutional caveats of non-state armed order, and ramifications for institutional trajectories. He is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Peace and Conflict (GIFK).

Lerber Dimas Vásquez

Anthropologist from the Universidad del Magdalena and Master's student in Anthropology of the Americas at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (Germany). With knowledge of social, economic, political and violent dynamics in the Sierra Nevada, and experience in Transitional Justice, Peacebuilding, Organized Crime, Urban Violence, Human Rights and International Human Rights Law. He is a member of the -GIFK- Gruppe für interdisziplinäre Friedens-und Konfliktfors and part of the Scientific Committee of International Researchers of the publishing house Navegando (Brazil)

Daniel Llanos Ramírez

Daniel Llanos Ramirez is a political scientist specializing in the Latin American region. He is currently Regional Group Leader for the Americas at the Heidelberg Institute for Conflict Research, where his work focuses on organized crime and violence. Daniel's research interests include peacebuilding, conflict resolution, crime, and the intersections between environmental governance and violence. He has work experience in governmental organizations in the field of international cooperation, including the European Union Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag, the Colombian Embassy in Berlin, and the German development bank KfW.

William Mesa Cárdenas

Doctoral candidate in Rule of Law and Global Governance (University of Salamanca), Master in Interdisciplinary Social Research and Social Sciences. William researches issues of traditional and restorative transitional justice, criminal justice policy and armed conflict. He currently works as an advisor to the “Restorative System” in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in Colombia (JEP).