PrintVirginia M. Bouvier
Senior Program Officer, Grant and Fellowships Program
Contact
Countries: Colombia
Virginia M. Bouvier joined USIP in January 2003 as a program officer for the Jennings Randolph Fellowship program. She is currently a senior program officer in the Grants and Fellowships program.
For the previous seven years, she was an assistant professor of Latin American literature and culture at the University of Maryland. From 1982 to 1989, Bouvier served as senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, where she focused on Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bouvier has also served as a consultant and research director for the Women’s Leadership Conference of the Americas, a joint project of the Inter-American Dialogue and the International Center for Research on Women, and as a consultant at the World Bank, Levi Strauss Foundation, Levi Strauss and Co. and the C.S. Fund.
She is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in Latin American studies.
Publications:
- Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War (editor) (USIP Press, forthcoming 2009).
- "Crossing the Lines: Women's Social Mobilization in Latin America," in Governing Women: Women's Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratization and Governance Reform, edited by Anne Marie Goetz (Routledge, 2008).
- Colombia's Crossroads: The FARC and the Future of the Hostages
USIPeace Briefing, June 2008 - New Hopes for Negotiated Solutions in Colombia
(USIP Working Paper, September 2007). - Harbingers of Hope: Peace Initiatives in Colombia
Special Report, August 2006 - "Evaluating U.S. Policy in Colombia," a Policy Report from the IRC Americas Program (2005).
- Women and Global Leadership in the Americas (InterAmerican Dialogue and International Center for Research on Women, 2004).
- Civil Society Under Siege in Colombia
Special Report, February 2004 - U.S. Involvement Deepens As Armed Conflict Escalates In Colombia
USIPeace Briefing, May 2003 - "Colombia Quagmire: Time for U.S. Policy Overhaul," Foreign Policy in Focus (2003).
- Whose America? The War of 1898 and the Battles to Define the Nation (Praeger Press, 2002).
- The Globalization of U.S.-Latin American Relations: Democracy, Intervention, and Human Rights (Praeger Press, 2002).
- Women and the Conquest of California (University of Arizona Press, 2001, 2004).
Available on usip.org
- On the Issues: Colombia
January 25, 2008
Resources & Tools
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Bringing together the experiences and insights of more than thirty experienced and emerging authors, human rights activists, and peace practitioners from Colombia and abroad, Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War documents and analyzes the vast array of peace initiatives that have emerged in Colombia in recent years. Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Civil Society, Conflict Management and Resolution, Human Rights, Peacebuilding, Use of Force
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USIP has supported over 300 products, projects, and activities related to human rights and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on the issue of human rights, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role human rights play in conflict and in peace. Issue Areas: Human Rights, Peacebuilding
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Over the past 15 years, USIP has supported over 90 projects related to women, conflict, and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on women, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role of women in conflict and in peace. |
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This USIPeace Briefing discusses the condition of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, their hostages and the potential direction of this situation. The briefing stresses insights that key figures in the issue raised in recent visits to Washington, DC. |
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Countries: Colombia
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Drawing from a series of conferences and events organized by USIP, this report examines the status of current peace initiatives in Colombia with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). It also assesses the paramilitary demobilization process and analyzes the role of local, national, and international third-party actors in each of these processes. The analysis reflects developments on the ground through the end of September 2007. |
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Colombia is poised at a crucial juncture - an opportunity to achieve lasting peace or, alternatively, to spiral into another cycle of violence. How can local, regional, and national actors help build upon peace initiatives to acheive a reconciled society in Colombia? |
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A Current Issues Briefing Co-sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Washington Office on Latin America. |
Events
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November 23, 2009
With more than four million internally displaced Colombians- an average of more than a quarter of a million people annually in recent years- and almost half a million more forced to flee across national borders in search of safety, Colombia now ranks just behind Sudan in the numbers of people displaced by the conflict. Women, youth, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous communities have been disproportionately affected by the conflict and by the displacement it causes. Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Human Rights, Population and Diaspora, Transitional Justice, Women
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November 12, 2009
Representatives of the Partners for Democratic Change's new Center in Colombia, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Due Process of Law Foundation will host a roundtable discussion about these mechanisms for democratizing justice at the community level. Discussion with invited experts will explore other experiences of community dispute resolution, as well as the challenges community justice mechanisms face and how they have been addressed. Countries: Colombia, Peru
| Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Governance, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict Activities, Rule of Law
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July 31, 2009
Since the internal armed conflict in Guatemala ended in 1996, millions of dollars have been spent on transitional justice, but the state's efforts to create an effective justice system have largely failed -- obliging many Guatemalans to create their own coping mechanisms for war-time atrocities, and severely limiting the effectiveness of ongoing transitional justice efforts. Countries: Guatemala
| Issue Areas: Civil Society, Post-Conflict Activities, Transitional Justice
| Programs: Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship Program
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July 14, 2009
Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Human Rights, Negotiation and Diplomacy, Peacebuilding, Population and Diaspora
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July 13, 2009
Following President Álvaro Uribe’s visit to Washington in late June and his meeting with President Obama, Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) will offer his views on how the U.S. should approach Colombia and prospects for peace in the country’s decades-long internal conflict. |
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April 1, 2009
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October 15, 2008
Public Event cosponsored by the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Inter-American Dialogue Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Humanitarian Efforts, Identity, Ethnicity, and Culture, Nongovernmental Organizations, Rule of Law
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June 27, 2008
Countries: Iran
| Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, International and Regional Organizations, Political Systems and International Relations, Religion
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June 16, 2008
Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Negotiation and Diplomacy
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May 14, 2008
Public Roundtable Event Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Humanitarian Efforts, Negotiation and Diplomacy, Terrorism and Political Extremism
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March 31, 2008
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February 15, 2008
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November 27, 2007
Issue Areas: International and Regional Organizations, Peacekeeping
| Programs: Grants & Fellowships, Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship Program
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June 5, 2007
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May 23, 2007
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March 8, 2007
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October 5, 2006
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November 18, 2005
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November 19, 2005
Countries: Colombia
| Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Mediation and Facilitation, Negotiation and Diplomacy
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