UF Center for Latin American Studies
Dr. Hanson will be visiting scholar at Harvard University, University of Notre Dame
January 26, 2024
Center professor Rebecca Hanson has been awarded two fellowships for the academic year 2024-2025. In the fall, Dr. Hanson will be a Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. In Spring 2025, she will be a visiting fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
During her fellowships, Dr. Hanson will be working on her project "Conceptualizing Criminal Governance in Authoritarian Contexts," in which she will analyze the relationship and dynamics between armed groups and authoritarian governments and how they have evolved over time. Dr. Hanson will draw from ethnographic, interview, and survey data collected over a ten-year period. “I have amassed a lot of data from projects in countries like Colombia, Honduras, and Venezuela," Dr. Hanson shares. "But with other projects I've been completing, plus classes, I haven’t been able to do much with it. The fellowships will give me time to work with this data and start drafting publications.”
This forthcoming project branches from a book project that Dr. Hanson is currently completing, under contract with Oxford University Press. In both projects, Dr. Hanson seeks to understand how authoritarian power operates in contemporary Venezuela. Building on this previous research on policing and state violence during Chavismo in Venezuela, she plans to map the diverse relationships between the Nicolás Maduro government and armed groups to explore the ways in which they shape how governance, social control, and a fragile order are constructed.
Dr. Hanson points out that the case of Venezuela is unique, given that the current authoritarian government evolved from a leftist political project, and coercive power was decentralized into nonstate armed groups, rather than centralized within the regime. Because of this, Dr. Hanson's project offers a distinct contribution to conversations on plural violence, shattered sovereignty, and criminal governance in the Global South.
By the time Dr. Hanson returns to Gainesville, she plans to have a prospectus for a book, as well as some chapter drafts. As with all her work, Dr. Hanson is especially motivated to share her research beyond academic circles, as it may help serve future policy development and implementation. Therefore, in addition to a book, she also plans to summarize findings from the data analysis and write a report on their implications for future peace processes, to be published with the Venezuelan NGO REACIN (Red de activismo e investigación para la convivencia / Activism and Research Network for Coexistence).
Like with any fellowship opportunity, the chance to engage with and learn from other scholars offers significant benefit—and appeal. “There are incredible scholars at Harvard and Notre Dame who work on topics similar to mine and I am really looking forward to learning from them and growing as a scholar during my time there,” Dr. Hanson says. “The focus on democracy, authoritarianism, elections, and crime at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies makes it an ideal place for me to develop my project. At Notre Dame I am particularly excited about the Notre Dame Violence and Transitional Justice Lab, as I have recently been discussing potential scenarios for transitional justice processes in Venezuela with colleagues.”
