William Álvarez

I am an urban ethnographer with a PhD in Sociology from the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil) and a Master’s degree in Anthropology from FLACSO Ecuador. I completed a postdoctoral research in Anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. My academic trajectory has been shaped by international research experiences at the University of Toronto (Canada) and Leiden University (the Netherlands), where I have engaged with interdisciplinary approaches to migration, governance, and inequality.

My work is grounded in long-term ethnographic research conducted across Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Brazil, focusing on how violence, migration, and illegal economies intersect in contexts of marginality in the Global South.

I currently work as a senior researcher at the Observatorio del Caribe Colombiano and as a Wenner-Gren Foundation Hunt Postdoctoral Fellow, where I lead research on migration and border dynamics. My professional experience also includes collaboration with humanitarian organizations such as the Cruz Roja Colombiana, contributing to the design and implementation of migration strategies in complex frontier regions.

My academic and visual work has received international recognition, including first prize in The Migrant Body photography competition, supported by the University of Manchester and the British Academy, as well as research grants and fellowships from institutions such as Minciencias and ICANH (Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e historia), among other awards and distinctions.

My work continues to evolve through an ongoing exploration of alternative ways of communicating research beyond conventional academic formats. Through visual ethnography, photography, and documentary storytelling, I seek to expand the reach of scholarly knowledge while remaining attentive to the ethical and representational challenges of working with marginalized communities. For me, research is not only analytical but also creative: a practice of translating complex social realities into narratives that connect, question, and make visible lived experience.