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Alejandro Castillejo-Cuéllar holds an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies (European University for Peace Studies, Austria), and an MA and a PhD in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research, New York. His doctoral dissertation was awarded in 2006 the Stanley Diamond Memorial Award in the Social Sciences, the most prestigious recognition the New School bestows on a doctoral student. In 2010, Castillejo-Cuéllar was also awarded the Alejandro Angel Escobar National Social Science Prize. He was Research Fellow at both Columbia University, New York, and at the Center for Study of Ethno-political Conflict, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Between 2001 and 2004, Castillejo-Cuéllar served as Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the Direct Action Center for Peace and Memory, both in South Africa. He has also been British Academy Fellow as well as Visiting Professor and Guest Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, Zayed University, Dubai, and the Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar, Senegal. In 2002, Castillejo-Cuéllar was consultant to the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission on behalf of the Danish government and in 2010 he was part of the Colombian National Commission of Reparation and Reconciliation (CNRR), Historical Memory Group. He has also been awarded several grants and fellowships from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Fulbright Commission, Soros Foundation, Mellon Foundation, among other university fellowships in the US and Europe. Castillejo-Cuéllar is co-founder of Encounters: An International Journal for the Study of Culture and Society, Dubai, the Africa and Latin America Academic Exchange Initiative and the Critical Studies Program on Political Transitions. Castillejo-Cuéllar is currently Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Los Andes, Colombia.