We are pleased to announce that our Research Fellow Dr Alexandra Abello-Colak has been awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to develop research on the dynamics of violence in Mexico, Colombia and Jamaica. Through critical exploration and redefinition of the problem of urban violence in three of the most affected cities (Medellin, Tijuana, Kingston), Alex’s research will challenge the way violence and security are currently understood and delivered.
Alexandra’s research focuses on urban security and social change in the Global South. She is particularly interested in challenges associated to providing security in cities affected by chronic levels of violence in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as on state-building and transformations in state-society relations in the region.
She has undertaken ethnographic work in urban communities affected by historically high levels of violence in Medellin and is interested in developing methodological innovations for undertaking research on security. She has participated in the collaborative development of methodologies to co-produce security knowledge with vulnerable communities and to improve security governance in various Latin American cities.
Read more about Alexandra’s work here.