We welcome Dr. Juan Albarracín Dierolf and Dr. Suparna Banerjee as new Visiting Fellows at the research center „Transformations of Political Violence“.
Juan Albarracín Dierolf is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC) and Visiting Fellow at TraCe for June and July 2024.
In his research he focuses on the restrictions on political and civil rights in cases of organized violence and extra-legal governance. In this sense, his work lies at the intersection of studies of democratization, criminal and political violence, criminal governance, and political institutions. Juan Albarracín Dierolf is also interested in the transformation of political violence after transitions from authoritarian rule and/or armed conflict. At TraCe, he will continue his research with Jonas Wolff on the patterns and causes of violence against social activists, building on previous research on the political logic of post-conflict violence, particularly the assassination of social movement leaders, in Colombia. This can be read in the recently published TraCe Working Paper entitled „Targeted Violence Against Social Activists“.
Suparna Banerjee completed her doctorate at the University of Bonn and is now a freelance writer at D+C Development and Cooperation. She is a Visiting Fellow at TraCe from July to December 2024.
During her fellowship at TraCe, Suparna Banerjee would like to explore the reasons behind the rising phenomenon of lynching in India, especially after 2014 when the right-wing government came to power. She seeks to understand the patterns and symbolism that create the necessary ecosystem for such acts to germinate and persist in a secular and democratic polity. At TraCe, she will contextualize the space of Digital India being used by the right-wing government to ideologically penetrate the masses. As India gradually becomes a major player in the dynamics of global power, it will be interesting to see how these internal developments negotiate with the demands of a liberal Western value system.
Both will stay at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).