Andrés M. F. González-Saiz, PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Rutgers University (2024), contributed a chapter to the open-access book “Filosofía y Violencias: Espectros del siglo XXI,” edited and published by the Walter Benjamin Foundation (Colombia). The book brings together six authors who explore the relationships between violence, power, political imaginaries, and collective life in Latin America and beyond.
In his chapter “Curators of Martyrdom: Victimization, Affects, and Culture Wars in the (New) Right,” Andrés examines how contemporary right-wing movements mobilize martyrdom, emotional politics, and narratives of righteous suffering to justify exclusion and consolidate political identity. Drawing on recent cases in the Americas, the chapter analyzes how affective economies transform individual deaths into collective symbols, shaping cultural battles that extend far beyond the events themselves.
González-Saiz previously served as an adjunct instructor at the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Rutgers and recently participated in the “Violences in Latin America” Talk series. Currently, he works as Director of Publications for the Program on Critical Studies of Political Transitions (PECT) at Universidad de los Andes.
The book is freely available in digital format. Download it here.
The Walter Benjamin Foundation for Social Research is a non-profit organization founded in Colombia in May 2009. Guided by principles of social justice and collective well-being, the Foundation promotes critical social research, the defense of collective rights, and the strengthening of autonomous community processes throughout Latin America. Its mission centers on advancing peace with social justice through collaborative, public-facing scholarship.
