Lecturer hopes to explore Colombian visual production with placement at Essex

Carolina Sourdis, a Colombian Lecturer at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain has been chosen to take part in the YERUN Research Mobility Awards (YRMA).

Carolina was selected out of a total of 88 applicants to take part in the YERUN Research Mobility Awards (YRMA), which allows academics from international institutions to work together on research projects and share ideas.

As well as working at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, Carolina has recently completed a PhD in Film Studies at the University.

Carolina’s main research interest is the link between art theory and practice and she is currently developing a project that explores archive, montage and history through contemporary Colombian visual production.

She said: “I feel very excited that I’ve been selected for such a competitive award and I was happy to see YERUN awarded a project which focuses on Colombian visual production.”

Carolina will spend two weeks at our School of Philosophy and Art History and work with researchers from the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA).

She decided to take part in the scheme to develop her skills in practice-led research methodologies which will help towards becoming a postdoctoral researcher.

She said: “I thought this was a great opportunity to ‘test’ those research interest and get feedback from scholars from other countries and institutions.”

Carolina is particularly looking forward to working with Dr Lisa Blackmore, whose project was a source of inspiration for her.

She said: “Dr Blackmore’s research project, Después de Trujillo/After Trujillo is about space, memory and dictatorship in Dominican Republic. It is a very interesting model to formulate a way of thinking history through the visual.”

Carolina is looking important to the unique opportunity to work with the most complete resource for art from Latin America in the UK.

She said: “There is a relative lack of centres or collections on Latin American art in Spain, so being able to consult the curated sub-collection of art related to human rights memory at ESCALA is really exciting.”

“Given the political situation that Colombia is living today, it’s absolutely necessary to think, discuss and share ideas around Colombian armed conflict, so I’m also looking forward to presenting a group of documentary films which address Colombian armed conflict at the Human Rights Centre.”

The call for the YERUN Research Mobility Awards opens every October. If you are interested in applying, please visit the YERUN website.