Jenny Escobar

Dr. Jenny Escobar studies the resiliency and justice initiatives of survivors of state violence, while centering their agency and knowledge as the foundation for building a praxis of local and transnational healing. Her research program is informed by prior community-based collaborations in Colombia and commitment to restorative and transformative justice practices. Dr. Escobar weaves together rigorous transdisciplinary research and community-based foundational knowledge and skills to develop a framework of healing and justice based on the experiences and practices of survivors of state violence. This relational, survivor centered, healing and justice approach includes three areas of research: 1) the memory work of survivors of state violence during and post conflict; 2) the integration of restorative and transformative justice values and practices as a methodology and an area of research; and 3) the inclusion of non-human relatives to identify the power of relationships and ancestral knowledge in survivors’ capacity to heal from and demand justice for state violence.