Researching displacement together: co-producing knowledge with displaced women in Colombia

SPEAKERS: Sonja Marzi, Radboud University and The London School of Economics and Political Science

DISCUSSANT: Conny Roggeband, University of Amsterdam

DATE: 12 December 2025

ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE

This lecture examines the experiences of 24 displaced women in Colombia and the challenges they face while rebuilding their lives in Bogotá and Medellín. Based on co-produced knowledge, it centres the women’s own understandings and descriptions of displacement, rather than treating it as an abstract idea. The lecture explores the economic, social, and political forms of violence that drive displacement and continue to shape urban life long after resettlement. These forms of violence are closely interconnected, producing lasting insecurity. The women’s accounts blur conventional boundaries between scales and types of violence—whether political violence at national, regional, or neighbourhood levels; state violence through action or neglect; or interpersonal harm. Their experiences show how these forces intersect and reinforce one another, making displacement a complex, ongoing condition rather than a single event.