Paper short abstract:

I will reflect on my attempt to use an ethnographic approach, on the one hand, to create distance with and analyze and, on the other, to apply my analysis onto my job as (a female) public servant, bureaucrat, researcher and museologist in the Museum of Memory of Colombia's project.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation I will refer to the challenges posed and possibilities offered by using an ethnographic approach, on the one hand, to create distance with and analyze, and on the other, to apply my analysis onto my job as public servant, bureaucrat and museologist in the creation of the Museum of Memory of Colombia.

For 4 years I have been hired by the National Centre for Historical Memory to work as curator, researcher and public servant (first as a "contractor" and later on as "specialized professional") in the project that attempts to create a Museum of Memory designed to provide satisfaction measures and non-repetition guarantees to victims of the armed conflicti in Colombia--a conflict that has not ended in spite two peace accords between the State and paramilitary (2005) and guerrilla (2016) groups.

I will reflect on my attempt to apply my anthropological and research training to my work as public servant and curator. I have used sound recording, note taking and article publishing to document, create distance with and analyze my everyday labour. How much is it possible to actually create that distance? What does it mean to be "at home" as a female ethnographer, museologist or (simply a) bureaucrat? What does it tell us about the transitional justice context in which my (home) country lives in, while still suffering from dire violence both from legal and illegal armed groups? And what about the role of museums and museology, and memory, in the same context?