Research Contracts & Fellowships
Julián Esteban Torres López has worked as a researcher on numerous projects since 2002. He has been awarded fellowships and grants to conduct research in the humanities and social sciences and has presented his findings at conferences and universities in the US and Canada, as well as provided live analysis on international media. He has also worked as a researcher in the private sector and on a range of social-political projects, which have taken him to Canada, the US, Ecuador, and Colombia.
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS TO PUBLISHED WORKS
Julián’s contributions as a researcher led to the following publications:
Book
- Julián’s book Reporting on Colombia: Essays on Colombia’s History, Culture, Peoples, and Armed Conflict.
- The majority of the research for this book was made possible by the individual research grants he was awarded (see next section).
- James Rochlin, Editor: Profits, Security, and Human Rights in Developing Countries: Global Lessons from Canada’s Extractive Sector in Colombia, (Routledge, 2017).
- Julián’s research for the grant on Canada, Human Rights, and Colombian Mining, awarded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, 2012-2015, helped the project get off the ground, which ultimately led to this book.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Academic Journals
- James Rochlin, Author: “A Golden Opportunity Lost: Canada’s Human Rights Impact Assessment and the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia,” The International Journal of Human Rights, 18(4-5), July 2014, pp. 545-566.
- James Rochlin, Author: “Colombia’s New Left and the Challenges of Security,” Latin American Perspectives, 39 (1), January 2012, pp. 10-27.
- James Rochlin, Author: “Who Said the Cold War is Over? The Political Economy of Strategic Conflict Between Venezuela and Colombia,” Third Word Quarterly, March 2011, pp. 237-260.
History Exhibits
- Legend captions for 1,000+ historical photographs used in nearly 150 graphically-designed community murals installed in 25 U.S. states, Community Mural Program, Wells Fargo, 2013-2015. Julián was the lead historical researcher for these projects and worked with historical societies (local, county, state, and national), libraries, and archives to (a) discover the stories that represented each specific community’s legacy and (b) to be able to write the captions.
- The program’s mission is to create unique, custom-designed, historical artwork that respects the community’s legacy, celebrates its diversity, and honors the past upon which the community was founded.
- Find a sample below of a legend with captions and design (by Anne Marie Lapitan) for a mural that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The mural and legend depict the struggles and triumphs in Montgomery on the road to racial equality, bringing pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement to life.
Legend_Montgomery_Civil-Rights-Mural
Individual Research Grants (Principal Researcher)
- University Graduate Fellowship, “Colombia’s Incessant Armed Conflict,” University of British Columbia Faculty of Graduate Studies, 2013.
- University Graduate Fellowship, “Conflict Resolution in Colombia,” University of British Columbia Faculty of Graduate Studies, 2010-2011.
- University Graduate Fellowship, “Colombian Foreign Relations, Human Rights, Security, and Civil War,” University of British Columbia Faculty of Graduate Studies, 2009-2010.
- Graduate Student International Research Mobility Award, “The Faces of Colombia’s Armed Conflict,” University of British Columbia Faculty of Graduate Studies; Go Global: Int’l Learning Programs, 2009,
- McNair Research Fellowship, “Historical and Socio-Political Influences on the Poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and Saul Williams,” US Department of Education; University of New Hampshire McNair Scholars Program, 2002.
Research Contracts for Dr. James Rochlin (principal investigator), University of British Columbia
- Co-investigator, “‘Orientalism’ in the Andes: Construction of Arab, Chinese, and Russian Identities in Ecuador and Venezuela,” Hampton Research Endowment Fund (HREF), 2013.
- Co-investigator, “Human Security and the Colombia-Canada Free Trade Agreement,” Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), 2012-2013.
- Co-investigator, “The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and Human Rights,” HREF, 2011
- Co-investigator, “Petro Power in the Andes: The New Strategic Landscape in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia,” SSHRC, 2008-2010.
- Co-investigator, “Strengthening Local Capacity to Track Potential Environmental and Health Impacts of Petroleum Production: A Canadian-Ecuador research collaboration,” Martha Piper Fund, 2009.