Expert to speak on terror in Colombia

Though the word “terror” may call to mind images of
bombs exploding in Baghdad, an expert visiting UCLA today will
attempt to analyze the phenomenon on a different level.

Ulrich Oslender, a professor of geographical and earth sciences
at the University of Glasgow in Scotland who has been studying
black communities in Colombia for over a decade, will give a
presentation titled “Geographies of Terror: A
Framework.” The presentation is a critique of dominant
geopolitical discourses on the global war on terror and how it is
commonly understood.

The lecture will delve into the spatial impacts of terror and
how it affects local populations on the ground.

Oslender will focus on regions outside the Middle East, applying
his framework to Colombia’s Pacific coast.

His research currently focuses on the population’s social
movement and the government’s regimes that seek to control it
through armed force. Oslender says rural blacks are being
systematically terrorized and institutionally displaced.

“This (talk) stresses the need to empirically engage with
and conceptually address the situation in the countryside,”
Oslender said.

“Rural dwellers’ lives are threatened … on an
everyday basis, but they also resist the imposition of these
regimes of terror.”

Samer Araabi, a fourth-year business economics and political
science student, said he believed information about terrorism
occurring outside the Middle East would be useful.

“I think that it’s a great educational
opportunity,” he said.

“People do need to know that (terrorism goes on
elsewhere).”

The event, which is hosted by the geography department, is the
latest in a string of biweekly seminars, called the Todd Spieker
Colloquium Series.

Kasi McMurray, manager of the geography department, said the
series features a variety of speakers who present on topics of
their choice.

She said the topics are “generally a surprise” until
the speakers contact the department.

The event is open to the public.