is a Senior Researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) in Freiburg and an Associate at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Viviana completed a PhD. in Political Science with a focus on peace and conflict studies at the Philipps University of Marburg (summa cum laude) and as part of the GIGA Doctoral Programme.
Before coming to Germany, she worked as a lecturer, researcher and consultant in different institutions in Colombia and Chile. Her research focuses on conflict and violence, local governance, peace and conflict transformation, and security with particular reference to cities and borderlands and a regional emphasis on Latin America. She has conducted fieldwork in Colombia and El Salvador. In the framework of the Postcolonial Hierarchies network, Viviana’s research analyses the intertwinement between postcolonial hierarchies, contentious politics, and urban governance in violence-affected cities. Her work examines how social mobilisation both reflects and challenges political, social, and spatial expressions of the coloniality of power and the implications of these dynamics for urban governance and everyday politics. In addition, she coordinates the conceptualisation and development of the virtual encyclopedia.
