“A paso de tesis”, with Lisbeth Katherine Duarte Herrera
Lisbeth Katherine Duarte Herrera is a political scientist from Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellin). She has a master’s degree in social sciences and a specialization in municipal development from Colegio Mexiquense A.C. She is currently doing her PhD in social sciences at Universidad de Granada (peace and conflict) and is our guest in the “A paso de tesis” section of our Netcapaz platform.
Lisbeth Katherine Duarte. Doctoral student. Netcapaz Platform
Netcapaz: How has your research topic changed since you started your doctoral or master’s degree?
Lkdh: My doctoral thesis changed in terms of its methodology. My idea is to analyse the factors that contributed to and hindered the course of the peace process and the signing of the agreement between the Colombian state and the FARC-EP by reconstructing everyone’s story. This is why I have entitled my research “From war to peace with everyone’s help. History of the negotiation process and the Havana peace agreements (2012-2016)”. When I mention that it has changed methodologically, it is because initially, I had planned to hold in-depth interviews and now I am using what historians call “intentional” and “unintentional” sources, and all the material published by the protagonists after the signing of the agreement who participated in the process (I have an inventory of texts, reports, and books on the subject).
Netcapaz: What specific issues related to the area of peace and conflict do you think your research will contribute to?
Lkdh: My research contributes to strengthening research on the paradigms of positive peace and imperfect peace. With regard to the former, it is because I analyse the peace process taking into account the procedural, substantive, and operational aspects, as well as the result, which is the agreement. In the second paradigm, because the analysis of these two aspects contributes to memory, peacebuilding, and the generation of conflict resolution capacities to which the country can contribute through its researchers, who would no longer only be experts in violentology.
Netcapaz: What products of your research have recently been implemented?
Lkdh: I attended the first international summer school 2018 memory and migration organised by Universidad Javeriana, CAPAZ, DAAD, and Goethe University. In 2019, I presented a paper at the international book fair in Guadalajara-Mexico: my work was selected by the peace laboratory at the Calas institute and I received funding for the paper “The negotiation process and peace agreement with the FARC-EP: a literature review”. The text will be published in a book that is being prepared by the peace laboratory, under the seal of the Teseo publishing house, to compile all the papers selected for this event. Finally, I have two articles submitted to indexed journals. One to a national journal and the other to an international journal. The articles are currently under review.