Rebecca Tatham is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in Political Science with specialization in International Development Studies at the University of Guelph, Canada. Collaborating with rural Indigenous movements resisting mining development in Guatemala, she uses gender and participatory approaches to generate insights on elite pacts, (gender) violence, and resistance. As the project’s coordinator, Rebecca has had a wide range of responsibilities including piloting key word searches and determining most useful search term queries for academic and non-academic literature, data coding and analysis, literature reviews, interviewing, moderating focus groups, assisting with the preparation of the research ethics application, delegating tasks to other student research assistants and training them where necessary, and coordinating logistics during fieldwork. She has co-authored with Jasmin several conference presentations and a journal article. 

Mateo Gutiérrez is a multidisciplinary artist who utilizes a self-taught hand-embroidery technique alongside painting, drawing, and video to interrogate the underlying ethos of violence and xenophobia endemic to American life. Mateo holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. Over a distinguished career, his work has been selected by prominent curators, including early recognition by Jerry Saltz and recent curation by Abraham Thomas of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was featured in the 2025 Texas Biennial. He has exhibited at the Austin Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art. A former Studio Art Lecturer at Texas State University, he has lectured internationally at institutions including Fordham University and York University. Gutiérrez’s practice has been profiled in Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, and Glasstire. He is currently a resident at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY, with upcoming 2026 residencies at the NARS Foundation and Arts 14C.  Artist website: www.mateogutierrez.net

Kellen was an exchange PhD student in Public Policy from the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), Brazil during her employment in the project. Her doctoral dissertation, under the co-supervision of Dr. Jasmin Hristov, focused on the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Brazil. Kellen assisted in retrieval and organization of alternative media news articles. She has also co-authored several conference presentations and a journal article with Jasmin. Presently, she is an Adjunct Professor in Public Policy at UFLA. 

Angela was an MA student in Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy at the University of Guelph during her work for this project. She was responsible for compiling a literature review on violence in Honduras as well as retrieving, organizing, and storing non-academic data in the reference management software Zotero. 

Jamie was an MA student in Global Studies at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan while working with Jasmin during the early stages of this project. She was responsible for proofreading and formatting the manuscript of the edited volume Paramilitary Groups and the State under Globalization: Political Violence, Elites, and Security (Routledge, 2022). 

Pavel is an anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and co-director of the production company Atmósfera Audiovisual. He has worked as a lecturer in Visual Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, Spain and has also taught courses in documentary filmmaking and participatory / community video. His numerous documentaries, among them “Tijuana No. Transgresion y fronteras” (2016) and “Palabra Viva” (2015), have been aired in various countries. Currently, he is directing a documentary on political violence in Mexico entitled “The Fire We Build” that is the product of collaboration between the human rights organization Comite Cerezo Mexico and Dr. Jasmin Hristov.

Benjamin is a consultant and development specialist with over 25 years of experience across Latin America and Canada, combining methodological rigor, technological expertise, and a strong commitment to human rights. He currently serves as a Volunteer Adviser for the Bureau International des Droits de l'Enfant (IBCR, Canada) in Honduras, providing technical support to a Garífuna women's organization and an intergovernmental body combating human trafficking, with a focus on strategic planning, MEL systems, and digital communication. In the past, he has worked with Oxfam, UNDP, IDB, and OEI. For this project, Benjamin has been involved in filming footage, while accompanying the team during fieldwork in Mexico and Honduras, for a documentary on violence and land dispossession (currently in progress).