dr. Jesse Jonkman

I am an anthropologist with a keen interest in the themes of state formation, resource extraction, multiculturalism, infrastructure, and environmental politics. I obtained a BA (2011) and MA (2014, cum laude) in Cultural Anthropology from Utrecht University. In 2016, I was selected as a PhD Candidate in the Latin American Studies Programme (NWO-funded), for which I carried out my doctoral research at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I completed my PhD in 2021 (cum laude) with a dissertation that focused on the everyday politics of wildcat gold mining in the Colombian region of Chocó.

My current research explores hybrid governance regimes in mining zones in Colombia. Specifically, I look at the dynamics of conflict and cohabitation that emerge between different actors in these regimes (small-scale miners, landholders, corporations, state actors, non-state armed groups, rivers, mountains).

I have taught the following courses: Development & Globalization (coordinator), Ethnographic Research Methodology, Ethnographic Monographs, Academic Skills Lab. I have also worked as a thesis supervisor for MA students (VU) and BA students (Utrecht University).

Winner J.C. Ruigrok Prize, Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (2022)

Winner Faculty of Social Sciences Dissertation Award, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2022)

Nominee for Nieboer Master Thesis Award, Utrecht University (2014)

NWO-Rubicon Postdoctoral Grant (February 1, 2022 - January 31, 2024)

Amsterdam Sustainability Institute’s 2021 Seed Money for Integrative Project (with Eva van Roekel, Žiga Malek, and Clarissa Meerts)

KNAW Award for Science Communication (with Dimitris Dalakoglou and Marjo de Theije) (2021)

Latin American Studies Programme PhD Scholarship (NWO) (February 1, 2016 until June 21, 2020)

Prince Bernhard Scholarship (2015)

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