Congratulations to GPIA Alumnus Teo Ballvé, who begins this Fall as an Assistant Professor of Geography and Peace & Conflict Studies at Colgate University in upstate New York. Teo Ballvé earned his Master’s degree The Graduate Program in International Affairs in 2009, and then pursued a PhD in Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. Teo has published a number of articles and essays on illicit networks and natural resource conflicts and violence with a regional focus on Latin America. His current research project, “Territorial Masquerades: Frontier State Formations in Northwest Colombia,” examines how the country’s combatants engage in unexpected forms of state-making as they vie for territorial control.
Teo credits GPIA with helping to launch his academic career: “GPIA was the perfect place for me to maintain a foot in both professional and academic worlds. While I was working as a journalist covering Latin American politics, I found in GPIA a welcoming intellectual community of engaged scholarship for more rigorous and critical investigation of world affairs. Its hands-on approach to learning led me to a summer job and a Fulbright in Colombia, where I have been living and working ever since. I can say without a doubt that I wouldn’t be where I am in both my personal and professional life was it not for GPIA.”
