The Body as A Location for Political Resistance - Interview with Priscyll Anctil Avoine

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entrevista
Priscyll Anctil
by Ana M. Vernia
Priscyll Anctil Avoine is a researcher in Feminist
Security Studies. Her work focuses on embodiment
and emotional processes in contemporary wars
and in the reintegration of female ex-combatants.
She is a PhD candidate in Political Science and
Feminist Studies at Université du Québec à Mon-
tréal (Canada) for which she received the Vanier
Graduate Scholarship. Previously, she completed
an MA in Peace, Conflict and Development Stu-
dies from Universitat Jaume I (Spain). Her docto-
ral thesis, The Body as a Location of Political Re-
sistance: The “Re-in-corporation” of Farianas in
the Northeastern Region of Colombia, takes a cri-
tical look at embodiment, affects and emotions in
the context of the post-peace agreement with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc-
ep). She has published various articles in renow-
ned journals, and she has conducted research in
Spain, United Kingdom, Colombia and Canada.
She is actively involved in the NGO Fundación
Lüvo, promoting feminist and antiracist creative
actions towards peacebuilding.
BODY AS A LOCATION FOR POLITICAL
RESISTANCE \\ Interview with Priscyll
Anctil Avoine

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interview
Ana M. Vernia (AV): You may wonder why
an art journal wants to carry an interview
with you. But we are interested in discus-
sing your view on embodiment, especially
drawing upon the work you are condu-
cing in your PhD Thesis about embodi-
ment in the process of reincorporation of
female ex-combatants of the Farc-ep1 in
Colombia. Starting from the very notion
of embodiment, have you ever thought
about using art for your projects aimed at
social transformation?
Priscyll Anctil Avoine (PAA): I think that art,
especially dance, has been very determinant in
the construction of my identity as a person and,
is at the center stage of my epistemological in-
terrogations. Through many years of dancing, I
feel I have learned to understand my own body
as the extension of the body of others and vi-
ce-versa. “Speaking” with the body is a power-
ful sentiment, and I feel it reflects the “sentipen-
sar” idea suggested by the Colombian author
Arturo Escobar. Thinking and feeling are not
divisible, and their union in epistemology is a
profound revolutionary act. It is the very sign of
our social interdependency.
In the work I conduct for my PhD thesis, the no-
tion of embodiment is central as it is a way for
me to debunk the traditional analysis in Politi-
cal Science by taking the body as an analytical
and practical category. The results of the re-
search show that the reincorporation programs
have taken a disembodied stance regarding
the passage of female ex-combatants from the
military scenario to the civilian society. There-
fore, those programs do not consider the em-
bodied and emotional rupture that occurs with
disarmament. As such, my thesis seeks to inte-
rrogate rage, nostalgia, care, love and anxiety
as central embodied political experience of the
transition to civilian society.
So yes, I have been using art for my projects
and I consider it proposes a never-ending set
of possibilities for social transformation. Most-
ly, my projects are all related to the embodied
character of our political bounds. I inquiry into
the political power of embodied emotions and
affects with the aim of demonstrating the cen-
trality of what happen, politically, between bo-
dies. Equally, I focus my social engagement with
Fundación Lüvo, a feminist collective, around
constructing projects based on love, friends-
hip and alternative pedagogies. We have used
art methodologies in different ways, both for
knowledge production and project proposals,
creating alliances with other feminist collecti-
ves.
AV: Could you briefly define what are the
methodologies you use?
PAA: I use different methods in my research
processes, mostly related to feminist epistemo-
logies and methodologies. My main field of
inquiry is International Relations where I tried
Priscyll Anctil
by Ana M. Vernia
Jaume I University (Spain)
1 Fuerzas armadas revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (Far-ep) was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla in Colombia. The Farc-ep has signed a peace agreement in La Havana (Cuba) in
2016 with the Colombian government, laying down arms and reincorporating to the civilian society.

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and emotions. Violence is experienced every
day, in the “matrix of violence”, as affirmed by
Swati Parashar, a brilliant IR feminist scholar.
In my research, I rely on the contributions of
IR Feminist scholars to comprehend female ex-
Farc political participation and resistance at the
intersection of various identities, such as poli-
tical agent, combatants, women, mothers, vic-
tims of sexual violence, activists, etc. The dis-
cursive, material and affective dynamics female
ex-combatants experience in their return to ci-
vilian society poses different challenges to our
analysis of political orders and contemporary
wars. Their embodied narratives are powerfully
challenging the theoretical frameworks in Inter-
national Relations.
AV: Although much progress has been
made on gender issues, obviously, we are
far from gender equality. For example, in
the artistic world, we still face certain di-
fferences. What actions should be taken,
from your point of view?
PAA: This is a huge question! I would say, al-
most impossible to answer in few lines. We can
say we have made very few progresses with re-
gards to gender issues, but in my point of view
sexist oppression, coupled with other forms of
oppression, such as classism and racism, is
very far from being eradicated. We still have so
much work to do and I would even say that we
are witnessing a backlash globally: women’s
lives, safety, bodily integrity, are under attack
everywhere. Women’s bodies and feminized
bodies are constantly being expelled from the
political sphere, feminicides are on the rise glo-
bally and antifeminist campaigns are growingly
gaining grounds. At the same time that we are
witnessing movements such as #MeToo, or Las
Tesis, as well as feminist protests throughout
Latin America for example, we are facing the
rise of extreme-right movements and a return
to conservative views on women gender roles
and violent actions against LGBTIQ+ groups.
The denunciations made by women against
gender-based violence have also showed that
the artistic world is no exception: here in Mon-
treal where I am currently based, we have seen
that power relationships in the media, artist
scenes, on television, etc., are omnipresent
and sexual violence against women as well.
Oppressive visions on women are everywhere
in the showbusiness and we must start a co-
llective interrogation about the way we relate
to one another, about consent and power re-
lations.
to question the androcentric and colonial lega-
cy of the field with innovative methodologies.
Taking the body as a central concept in my
research has allowed for the working of me-
thods based on embodied processes, affects,
emotions, etc. As such, I have used body ma-
pping methods, emotional cartography, auto-
biographical methods, narrative analysis and
methods that centers around drawing your own
life trajectory.
Equally, our collective work with Fundación
Lüvo, a feminist and antiracist non-profit orga-
nization, is impregnated with artistic methods
to promote social change. We are actively wor-
king with alternative pedagogies focused on
Afrocolombian music, body mapping, labora-
tory of social innovation, communities of practi-
ce, autobiographical narratives and emotional
cartographies. As a matter of example, we clo-
sely work with Enkelé, a music group based in
Colombia and composed of 9 women artists.
Enkelé is working to revive oral tradition and
sounds from afrodescendant heritage. With
them, we are trying to propose new methodo-
logies for cultural and social change, mostly
regarding women’s political participation and
with regard to anti-discrimination stance in po-
litical, intimate and artistic spheres.
AV: Why would you take the body as the
site of resistance instead of the mind?
PAA: In my research, I actively try to enga-
ge with poststructuralist and feminist theories
about embodiment and, therefore, I wish to
question the legacy of Western binaries such
as emotion/reason, body/mind, vulnerability/
resistance, etc. In consequence, I do not see
a division between mind and body; rather, I
understand embodiment as a social process,
as a place to understand political collective
struggle – even though, throughout history, the
body has been comprehended as equivalent
to biological matter. In feminist account, the
body is a social entity: following Judith Butler,
there is no “self” outside power relationships,
which means that we can questions the premise
about “individual autonomy” in politics. Politics
is rather what happens between bodies, and
accepting this very interdependency – and the
common vulnerability that sustains it – might
change our view on resistance.
As such, embodiment is a site of knowledge
production. For feminists in International Rela-
tions, researching on violence and armed con-
flicts imply the rethinking of embodiment, affect
Entrevista
PRISCYLL ANCTIL AVOINE
by ANNA M. VERNIA

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AV: The 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) are on the political agen-
da of governments. How do you see the
application regarding SDG number 5?
PAA: I must say that I have many critics re-
garding the SDG, as they are what they are:
institutional takes on global problems that have
been denounced by activists from so many
years. While we definitely need international
conventions, texts and agreements to sustain
the struggle for gender equality (SDG #5), I do
not think that this is where we can really have
an impact. This frame is still looking at gen-
der as a “mainstreaming” tool and as a way to
“develop” (a concept that is very much impreg-
nated by Western colonialism) and guarantee
“progress” (also a concept framed through an
idea of linear and modern progress that has
been widely criticized by decolonial authors).
Take for example the idea of “empowerment”
explicit to SDG #5: empowerment can be a
radical concept, but when taken by global ins-
titutions and countries assuming positions of
power in international affairs, then you get a
very disempowering concept of empowerment.
Who has the “tools”, “power” and “capital” to
empower whom? How are we reproducing pa-
ternalistic view on women? So, honestly, I see
the application of SDG #5 as very problematic
and difficult. Where I see it can foster spaces
for rethinking gender relations, it is in the possi-
bilities of translocal, transborder, transnational
alliances between women activists, scholars,
public officers etc., where they can actively en-
gage in changing the dominant frame of analy-
sis and praxis.
AV: Linking with the SDGs and connec-
ting with Human Rights, we see that there
is still a clear social and educational ex-
clusion unresolved. What solutions or ac-
tions, from your point of view, could im-
prove or reduce this situation?
PAA: I think that this interrogation needs to
be connected to our educational systems that
reproduces the colonial, racist and sexist fra-
mes that perpetuate, in turn, systemic violence
and political exclusion. Education tend to be
disconnected from the lived reality of most of
the students both in basic education and at the
level of undergraduate and post-graduate stu-
dies. We still see education as the transmission
of knowledge instead of seeing as a process of
co-construction.
When I first make consciousness about femi-
nisms and their impacts in my life, I felt that
my entire world has changed and I must say I
felt sorrow, pain. But as I understood everyday
a bit more about my positionality, my own ex-
perience and when I started to share thoughts
and feelings with other women and allies of the
feminist struggle, I could see that it was a hea-
ling path for me. So, as bell hooks rightfully ar-
gued, “feminism is for everybody”; I would say
that a first step to take action is to comprehend
sexist oppression as a problem that concerns
everyone, and as a matter of social justice.
And this means becoming conscious of how
we reproduce gender hierarchies and gende-
red privileges. So one concrete action is also to
change our very understanding of power, from
power over to power with: how will we relate to
others on a everyday basis? How can we give
up on privileges? We should, as a society, start
to listen to feminist activists and scholars, from
different embodied geographies, and delibera-
tely questions our relations of power, every day.
It is a revolution that happens daily, constantly;
it is a critical endeavor.
AV: Returning to art, and combining the
field of Humanities with your studies in
Conflict and Peacebuilding, would it be
necessary to rethink the current school
regarding its humanistic content? What is
your opinion on this?
PAA: I would say that my opinion is modelled
by the fact that I have conducted research in the
field of Peace and Conflict Studies for several
years now, and I had the chance to work two
years in a Department of Humanities in Colom-
bia. I consider that we really need to rethink
how schools and universities are engaging with
humanistic content. For me it is impregnated
by colonial and religious legacies that are
perpetuating so many systems of oppression,
mostly racial, classist and gendered ones. But
it also reconduct different form of hierarchies
that contribute to viewing schools and univer-
sities as disciplinary institutions, where students
come to “receive” and “absorbs” values, but
always, a certain form of values, framed under
universalistic points of view, mostly Westernized
ones. So yes, definitely, we need other forms
of knowing the world, and we need to insert
the intersectional analysis of structural and sys-
temic violence into the curricula in Humani-
ties, otherwise, we are missing the whole point
about what it means to be “human”.

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wildlife and the necessity for recognizing, as
human beings, of our interdependency.
AV: ARTSEDUCA is a publication aimed at
artistic environments and contexts, from
education and research. Do you believe
that Art and Culture can be tools to chan-
ge the world for the better?
PAA: I definitely consider that art and cultu-
re are fantastic tools of change. But they are
also vectors of domination and violence. Let’s
consider gendered-based violence. For exam-
ple, many songs have hurtfully imposed gen-
dered stereotypes on women and they have
been widely reproduced worldwide. This has a
truly long-standing impact on the vision women
have on themselves, and how men can project
hegemonic masculinities. Gender-based vio-
lence, and symbolic violence that sustains it, is
everywhere : art, media, television, and cultu-
ral practices all around the world (even though
they take different forms and shapes).
But if culture and art are sites of oppression,
they might also be the sites where we can sub-
vert violence and domination. Since art and
culture are at the core of identity processes, of
subjectivity constitution and because they act
upon feelings and emotions, they represent
interesting possibilities for social change. But
we also need to interrogate, what we mean by
“the better”; and precisely, it means asking for
domination, power relationships, oppressions
and privileges. We need to address systema-
tic forms of oppression that are perpetuated
through cultural signs, customs and traditions.
AV: To conclude this interview, what ad-
vice would you give to current students
and future arts professionals?
PAA: I think it is a great occasion to retake the
words of Cynthia Enloe, a prominent scholar
in my field of research: be a curious feminist.
I guess that is what I suggest to my students,
when I begin courses and seminars: we want to
be questioning, all the time. Be curious about
feelings, emotions, and embodied sensations
that further push the boundaries of your theo-
retical interrogations. It looks simple, but it is a
life-time project.
AV: From ARTSEDUCA, we really appreciate
having shared your time and knowledge.
Therefore, the task is huge because, we are
facing here millennial entrenched ways of see-
ing how to “educate” people – as a matter of
example, universities have not changed a lot
since their foundation as educational institu-
tions. Decolonizing those institutions is a struc-
tural challenge so, we cannot think of doing
this decolonization as an individual task, but
a collective one, where institutions themselves
should clearly take stance for pluralism, antira-
cism and antisexism.
In my point of view, linking the academia with
praxis, or practical knowledge, recuperating
the forms of knowledge that have been his-
torically erased (women’s knowledge in many
countries have been completely erased and ta-
gged as non-scientific for example), and cha-
llenging our pedagogical tools might help us
to engage in different paths of deconstruction
of our educational systems. That is mostly what
we are doing with Fundación Lüvo: we crea-
te our own media content, propose resources
for alternative pedagogies and methodologies,
rely on art as tool for change and engage in
constant dialogues between the academia and
activism.
AV: Under the pandemic situation that
we are suffering, from your point of view,
what are the most vulnerable groups?
PAA: Historically marginalized groups have
been further exposed to precarity and vulnera-
bility in these hard times of pandemic. As hu-
man beings, we have had so many difficulties
in recognizing what feminists have long said:
we share a common vulnerability, and if we do
not face it, we are clearly missing a point, as
Judith Butler argues. The pandemic has showed
that we are globally all exposed to the virus,
but that social inequalities have exposed diffe-
rentially some populations more than other in
many different geographies.
I think that it is still difficult to evaluate all the
social consequences of Covid-19 pandemic.
As social scientists, we are confronted with
theorizing at the same time that we are every
day, witnessing disease, deaths, disastrous po-
litical decisions, and so on. What can be said
for now is that historically marginalized groups
are facing conditions of precarity that are ge-
tting worse every day. That our health systems
are not able to respond the crisis, and that
women have been sustaining the economy of
care without any historical recognition. That we
can no more ignore our deep interrelation with
Entrevista
PRISCYLL ANCTIL AVOINE
by ANNA M. VERNIA