Merton Society Annual Lecture & Champagne Reception

Our guest speaker was Dr Gwen Burnyeat, Junior Research Fellow in Anthropology, who spoke about 'Peace, Politics and Polarisation: Lessons from Colombia'.

Gwen is a Junior Research Fellow in Anthropology at Merton College. She is the author of two books: The Face of Peace: Government Pedagogy amid Disinformation in Colombia (September 2022, University of Chicago Press) and Chocolate, Politics and Peace-building: An Ethnography of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia (2018, Palgrave Macmillan), and the producer of the award-winning documentary, Chocolate of Peace (2016). She has also worked as a practitioner in peacebuilding and human rights organisations in Colombia and the UK, and she is a member of transnational civil society organisation Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD) which supports a negotiated solution to the Colombian armed conflict.

The event was hosted by the Warden, Professor Irene Tracey CBE, and chaired by the Merton Society President, Dame Philippa Whipple (1984).

The 2022 Merton Society Lecture and champagne reception was generously supported by Patrick Long (1995).