Ana Sanchez-Ramirez

Ana Sánchez-Ramírez is a PhD candidate in the joint Peace Studies and History program. Ana holds an M.A. in Ethnic Studies and a graduate certificate in Women Studies and Gender Research from Colorado State University, as well as a B.A degree in Anthropology from the National University of Colombia.

Ana’s research focuses on the political and intellectual histories of peacebuilding in late 20^th century Colombia. Her dissertation inquires into the rise and influence of “violentology,” an expert knowledge that emerged at the intersection of academic studies on violence in Colombia and the government’s peacebuilding initiatives from the late 1980s onwards. Examining how Colombian intellectuals shaped their government’s peacebuilding agendas, her work seeks to recreate the space of negotiation and contestation in which academic analyses and recommendations influenced policymakers’ decisions about violence, peace, and the very future of the Colombian nation.  Prior to joining the Kroc Institute’s PhD program, Ana’s research explored questions of violence, memory, and representation in Colombia. She has conducted ethnographic research with victim’s movements and their strategies around historical memory. For her master’s thesis, she analyzed Colombian state narratives on war and peace disseminated in mass media. 

At Notre Dame, Ana has been a Research Assistant for the Peace Accord Matrix (PAM) project, coding and following the implementation over ten years of 35 partial peace agreements signed in Colombia between 1984 and 2012. Ana received the Darby Fellowship for the 2017-2018 academic year. She is a Doctoral Student Affiliate of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and was awarded the Kellogg Graduate Research Grant for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019). In 2021, Ana received the ISLA Graduate Research Award.