Dr José A. Gutiérrez
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

MSc (UCD, Dublin), PhD (UCD, Dublin)

José A. Gutiérrez is a sociologist with an anthropological background, and lecturer at the Centre for Applied Human Rights. His work, focused particularly in rural settings, explores the intersections between conflict studies, human rights and peace studies. He has actively participated in various transitional justice initiatives in Colombia.

José is also Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Illicit Economies, Violence and Development (CIVAD) at SOAS, London. He was post-doctoral research fellow at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and at Teagasc -the Agriculture and Food Development Authority of Ireland. He was awarded the prestigious Andrew Grene scholarship by the Irish Research Council and the Conflict Resolution Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Ireland to complete his PhD, which won the Dr Máire de Paór award at University College Dublin (UCD).

Research

Overview

José A. Gutiérrez has done extensive ethnographic research in Colombia, particularly among conflict-affected peasant communities in the South West and South East of the country. His work has been published in prestigious journals in the area of conflict, and has fed into the growing literature on rebel governance and civilian-combatant interactions. His work with rural communities, together with his defence of peasant rights, have informed his work on Transitional Justice and Transformative Justice from the perspective of agrarian conflict. 

José’s work also focuses on statebuilding, criminality, political contention and armed conflict, and he is also working currently in the intersections between sectarianism and racism in Northern Ireland. His work has been published mostly in English and Spanish, bridging the Latin American and English-speaking academic traditions.  

Supervision

PhD Supervision

• Camila Cavalcanti Teixeira “Struggle and Law: social movements in Brazil and Colombia and their mobilisation for social transformation through human rights law”

Dr Jose Gutierrez welcomes PhD applications in the following areas:

• Conflict
• Statebuilding
• Peacebuilding
• Human Rights
• Transitional Justice
• Latin America

Publications

Selected publications

Journal Articles

•  “Rebel governance: A matter of time”, Civil Wars (online)
  
• “Gone with the Rebels: Reshaping Local Orders in Post-Peace Agreement Colombia”, Latin American Politics and Society 67(3): 1-25, co-authored with Clara Voyvodic Casabo. 
• “Los corteros de la caña de azúcar en el Valle del Cauca: continuidades y transformaciones (1959-2015)”, Cambios y Permanencias 14(2): 69-83, co-authored with Renán Vega.
• “Process and effect in Tilly's analytical toolbox. A brief discussion of Charles Tilly’s state-making and war-making model”, Civil Wars 25(2-3): 562-568.
• “A Tax Like Any Other? Rebel Taxes on Narcotics and War Time Economic Order”, International Politics,62(2): 411-433, co-authored with Zachariah Mampilly.
• “¿Y si hubieran cumplido? Las drogas ilegales y el acuerdo de paz más allá de los (obvios) incumplimientos”, Análisis Político, 103: 144-166. 
• “The unspoken red-line in Colombia: gender re-ordering of women ex-combatants and the transformative peace agenda”, Cooperation and Conflict, 58(2): 211-230, co-authored with Emma Murphy.
• “Creating a rainbow for sustainability: the case of sustainable beef”, Sustainability, 14(8): 4446, co-authored with Richard Lynch, Maeve Henchion and John Hyland.
• “Tillyian process without a Tillyian effect: Criminalised economies and State-building in the Colombian conflict”, Journal of Political Power, 15(1): 29-55, co-authored with Estefanía Ciro.
• “State, Political Power and Criminality in Civil War: An Editorial. Revisiting Old Debates from Different Angles”, Journal of Political Power, introduction to special issue, 15(1): 1-13, co-authored with Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín,.
• “Ecosystems of Collaboration for Sustainability-Oriented Innovation: The Importance of Values in the Agri-Food Value-Chain”, Sustainability, 14(18): 11205, co-authored with Áine Macken-Walsh.
• “Rebel governance as State-building? Discussing the FARC-EP’s governance practices in Southern Colombia”, Participazione e Conflitto, 15(1): 17-36.
• “October 2017 in Catalonia. The anarchists and the Procés”, Nations & Nationalism, 29(1): 209-228, co-authored with Jordi Martí Font.
• “Introduction. Anarchism and the National Question -Historical, Theoretical and Contemporary Perspectives”, Nations & Nationalism, 29(1): 121-130, introduction to special issue, co-authored with Ruth Kinna.
•  “Eating, Shitting and Shooting: a Scatological and Culinary Approximation to the Daily Lives of Rebels”, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 46(10): 1817-1839.
• “The counter-insurgent paradox. How the FARC-EP successfully subverted counter-insurgent institutions in Colombia”, Small Wars & Insurgencies, 32(1): 103-126.
•  “Rebels-turned-narcos? The FARC-EP’s political involvement in Colombia’s cocaine economy”, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 44(1): 26-51, co-authored with Frances Thomson.
• “Whatever we have, we owe it to coca’. Insights on armed conflict and the coca economy from Argelia, Colombia”, International Journal of Drug Policy, 89, March 2021.
•  “Towards a New Phase of Guerrilla Warfare in Colombia? The Reformation of the FARC-EP in Perspective”, Latin American Perspectives, 47(5): 227-244, 2020.
•  “A Walk with the Lads’: Masculinities’ Perspectives, Gender Dynamics and Resilience in Soacha, Colombia”, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 49: 101652.
•  “The Nation Against the State: the Irish Question and Britain-based Anarchists in the Age of Empire”, Nations and Nationalism, 26(3): 611-627, 2019, co-authored with Federico Ferretti.
•  “What do Rebels do when they Rule?”, Journal of Political Power, 11(1): 125-133.
• “Participatory Action Research (PAR) and the Colombian Peasant Reserve Zones: The Legacy of Orlando Fals Borda”, Policy & Practice: a Development Education Review, Issue 22, Spring 2016
• “Revolutions of the Possible: Understanding the Rise (and Crisis) of the New Latin American Left”, Policy & Practice: a Development Education Review, Issue 22, Spring 2016 (co-authored with Renán Vega Cantor)
• “Exploring the problems of Solidarity”, Interface: a journal for and about social movements, 6(2): 26-34, 2014 (co-authored with Hilary Darcy and David Landy)
• “Conference Review. ‘International Solidarity: Practices, Problems, Possibilities’, Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin, 6 December 2013”, Irish Journal of Sociology, 22(2), November 2014 (co-authored with David Landy, Hilary Darcy and Joanna Orr) 
   

Books

• “Transitional Justice and Agrarian Conflict”, Palgrave Macmillan: London. ISBN: HBK 978-3-032-25227-2; eBook 978-3-032-25228-9.
• “Criminality, political power and conflict. Critical perspectives”, Co-authored with Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín (eds.), Manchester University Press: Manchester. ISBN: HBK 9781526181831; eBook 9781526181848.
• “Political Power, Criminality and Conflict”, co-authored with Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín (eds), Routledge: London, 2023. ISBNs: HBK 978-1-032-49587-3; PBK 978-1-032-49588-0; eBook 978-1-003-39452-5.
• “Justicia Transformativa y Conflicto Agrario. Elementos para un Debate Necesario”, co-authored with Eric Hoddy & Daire McGill, Universidad Santo Tomás: Bogotá, 2023. ISBN: 978-958-782-618-0. E-ISBN: 978-958-782-619-7.
• “Siempre de Pie, Nunca Rendidos” co-authored with Renán Vega Cantor, Teoría & Praxis and Desde Abajo: Bogotá, 2019. ISBN: 978-958-48-7961-5.

Chapters

• “Transitional Justice”, co-authored with Paul Gready. In “Virtual Encyclopaedia - Rewriting Peace and Conflict / BMFTR Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict”, University of Freiburg, 2025 (online)
•  “Introduction. Criminality, political power and conflict – critical perspectives” co-authored with Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín. In “Criminality, Political Power, and Conflict. Critical perspectives”, José A. Gutiérrez & Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín (eds.), Manchester University Press, 2025, pp. 1-22.
• “Greedy peace-makers. Post-FARC-EP trajectories from political crime to politicised common crime”. In “Criminality, Political Power, and Conflict. Critical perspectives”, José A. Gutiérrez & Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín (eds.), Manchester University Press, 2025, pp. 177-204.
• “La Cuestión Agraria y la Justicia Transformativa: Algunos Aspectos Fundamentales”, co-authored with Eric Hoddy. In “Justicia Transformativa y Conflicto Agrario. Elementos para un Debate Necesario”, José A. Gutiérrez, Eric Hoddy & Daire McGill, Universidad Santo Tomás: Bogotá, 2023, pp. 13-56.
  

Working Documents

• “La justicia transicional como motor de transformación”, Instituto Capaz, Bogotá, 2023.
• “Transitional justice as a driver of transformation”, Instituto Capaz, Bogotá, 2023.

Review Essays

• “Indirect rule, Intra-Systemic Actors and Impasses: a review” of “Clientelistic Warfare”, by Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín. Journal of Political Power, 15(1): 183-188.
• “Socio-Economic Rights from Below: Social Contestation and Constitutionalism in Ireland (1848–2016)” by Thomas Murray. Journal of Political Power, 10(2), 2017.

Teaching

Postgraduate

• [POL00092M-S2-A] Transitional Justice and Human Rights (Seminar)
• [POL00016M-S1-A] The Practice of Fieldwork (Seminar)
• [POL00044M-S1-A] Applying Human Rights (Seminar)
• [POL00090M-S1-2-A] Project Placement

Other teaching

Prizes

• Mary Kelly Award (School of Social Justice, University College Dublin), 2012
• Andrew Grene Scholarship (Irish Research Council, Department of Foreign Affairs, Government of Ireland)
• Dr Máire de Paor Award (University College Dublin).

External activities

Memberships

• Conflict Research Society
• ECPR
• Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA)
• Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS)
• Research Fellow at the Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction (IICRR), Dublin City University (DCU)
• Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Illicit Economies, Violence and Development (CIVAD), SOAS.
• Bailieborough Heritage Society

Business engagement

Advisory work

• Research Assistant to the Historical Commission on the Conflict and its Victims, Colombia (2014)
• Advisor to “Total Peace” Negotiations in Colombia (2023-2024)[1.1][2.1][3.1][4.1]
• Commissioner in the Academic Commission of Enquiry on the “War” on Drugs in Colombia (2026).