Catalina Delgado Rojas

State-sponsored symbolic reparations.
Official memorialization spaces in transitional societies.

Supervisors

  • Dr Jenna Ashton
  • Dr Kostas Arvanitis
  • Prof Lucia Sa

Overview

My research aims to explore how museums and memorials conceived as official symbolic reparations evolve in transitional societies. Due to the potential of memorial and museums to articulate collective memories and promote non-recurrence, they have become essential symbolic reparation projects. Nevertheless, due to its complementary role in reparation programmes and vague definition of the term, there are aspects about the implementation of these projects that remain unclear. As empirical research has demonstrated, multiple variables of the context affect the creation of symbolic reparations. Similarly, the actors’ participating and the relationships created in these memorialization projects influence the response of the civil society to symbolic reparations. These factors can also cause intended and unintended consequences in the communities they are trying to repair.

To introduce new insights to the comprehension of official symbolic reparations this research adopts a more complex approach. This perspective prioritize the context in which these projects take place and the role of actors in their development. The selected case studies are the Museum of Memory of Colombia resulting from the Law of victims 1448 (2011) in Colombia and Fragments the memorial to the victims inaugurated after the Peace Agreement signed between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP ex-guerrilla (2016).

This thesis examines the expectations of actors’ participation (individuals and institutions) in public policy documents; the relationships created between artists, cultural, and transitional justice actors in the creation and production of these projects; and the contributions of official memorialization spaces from the stakeholders’ perspective and symbolic reparation guidelines.

Biography 

Colombian doctoral researcher in Museology. I hold an MA in Social Anthropology from the University of the Andes and an MA in Museology and Heritage Management from the National University of Colombia. In the academic field, my research has been related with women in sports; public art heritage in Colombia; and gender approach in Latin American museums. As an independent researcher, I have worked in themes related to conflict, human rights education, and systematization of experiences. As a cultural manager, I developed projects in museum education, assorting archives, curating exhibitions and creating cultural heritage projects. In 2019, I worked as coordinator of the education and public activities team in Fragments, a memorial to the victims inaugurated after the Peace Agreement in Colombia. This experience became the basis of my research. Here in Manchester, I work as a Reslife advisor, Sporticipate coordinator and research administrator in the project Comics and Race in Latin America.

Publications and other outputs

Conferences

  • 23/06/2022. Gender Work and Organizations, Stream 6 / “On behalf of the Victim”: understanding network formation of state-sponsored symbolic reparations through public policy documents
  • 10/06/2022. CLACS symposium in Latin American and Caribbean studies / System Formation and Actors’ Participation in a State-Sponsored Symbolic Reparation Memorial.
  • 10/04/2022.Methodological Discontents: Creative approaches to inclusive, decolonising and interdisciplinary methods in times of crises / avoiding the surrogate experience during your doctoral journey
  • 2021/09/12.University of Brighton/MECCSA conference: about space/ The Characteristic of symbolic reparation spaces
  • 2021/06/09. University of Westminster round table / Women’s Experiences of Conflict Gender, Violence, and Representation at the National Museum of Colombia
  • 2021/05/14.University of Manchester CLACS/ Latin American studies in the UK symposium/Complexity framework and methodology to analyse symbolic reparations.
  • 2021/04/10. University of Liverpool/ Victims Memory and representation conference / Fragments: a counter-monument to the victims of Colombian Conflict.

Publications

  • Peate, A., Delgado-Rojas C., and Posada Villada V. “Fragmentos: The Counter-Monument Addressing Colombia’s Armed Conflict and Sexual Violence against Women”. Museological Review, Issue 26. 2022.
  • Las Socias: A Feminist Video Game for Peacebuilding. 2022. The Magazine of the Institute for Cultural Practices. Link to the article
  • Complex fragments of a state-sponsored memorial during Colombia’s mass protests. 2021. The Magazine of the Institute for Cultural Practices. Link to the article.
  • Museums and community support during transitional periods. 2019. The Magazine of the Institute for Cultural Practices. Link to the article.
  • Gender perspectives to Conceptual Art in Colombia. Museum of Modern Art. 2018. Link to the article.
  • Virtual Heritage and Digital Humanities: debates and areas of common ground Universidad de los Andes. 2017. Link to the article.
  • The Pedalling Museum. Universidad de Costa Rica. 2014. Link to the project.
  • Regulation, representation and experience of the female athletic body: Three ways of seeing women on the ring. 2014. Link to the article.

Cultural projects

  • Community: Gente de Museos: cuidado y autocuidado museológico en tiempos de pandemia..2020. Link to the project.
  • Video: Gender approach in Latin American Museums. Inclusive Museum Conference. 2018. Link to the project.
  • Guide: The Pedalling Museum. Online heritage project about the monuments of 26th Street in Bogotá. 2014. Link to the project.
  • Exhibition: Op de Fiets: the story of how Holland became a cycling nation. Exhibition at Bogota’s International Book Fair. Link to the project.

Contact

Email: catalina.delgadorojas@manchester.ac.uk
Academia.edu: manchester.academia.edu/CatalinaDelgadoRojas