Tania Lizarazo
Associate Professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
About the Book
Black women in the department of Choco, Colombia, imagine the end of the armed conflict through activism and storytelling. Tania Lizarazo focuses on members of COCOMACIA, Colombia’s largest Black peasants’ association that defends the collective territories in the Pacific lowlands. Drawing on the life stories of members and their local, regional, and transnational networks, Lizarazo explains how Choco’s Black Colombian women survive through everyday collaborative practices—from showing up to caretaking. As rehearsals of peace-building, these stories and practices exemplify the embodied practices that make survival possible. Day by day, the women imagine what memory, peace, and justice could look like alongside violence. Though peace may seem impossible, wishing and working to materialize a postconflict in Colombia is part of worldmaking practices that center Black women’s knowledge.
A merger of storytelling and theory, Postconflict Utopias explores the links between lived knowledge and survival while revealing the power unleashed when women ask the simple question, “Why not?”
“Postconflict Utopias is a must read for Colombianists, Black feminists, and other scholars. The stories and narratives of Black women in Colombia invite us to fundamentally rethink violence, organizing, and utopia. We see the power and magic in women’s everyday practices through which women collaborate, care and (re)make themselves and their worlds.”
—Kiran Asher, author of Black and Green: Afro-Colombians, Development, and Nature in the Pacific Lowlands
About the Author
Tania Lizarazo (PhD, University of California, Davis) is an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication and the Global Studies Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Tania Lizarazo (PhD, Universidad de California, Davis) es profesora asociada en el Departamento de Lenguas Modernas, Lingüística, y Comunicación Intercultural y el programa de los Estudios Globales en la Universidad de Maryland, Condado de Baltimore.
Utopías del Postconflicto
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Las mujeres negras del departamento del Chocó, Colombia, imaginan el fin del conflicto armado a través del activismo y la narración. Tania Lizarazo se centra en los miembros de COCOMACIA, la asociación de campesinxs negrxs más grande de Colombia que defiende los territorios colectivos en las tierras bajas del Pacífico. Basada en las historias de vida de lxs miembros y sus redes locales, regionales y transnacionales, Lizarazo explica cómo las mujeres negras colombianas de Chocó sobreviven a través de prácticas colaborativas cotidianas.
Una fusión de narración y teoría, “Postconflict Utopias” explora las conexiones entre el conocimiento vivido y la supervivencia, mientras revela el poder que se desata cuando las mujeres preguntan la simple pregunta: "¿Por qué no?"