I am interested in the politics of identity, stigma, and brutality during war and other episodes of violence. My research centres marginalised social groups in both theoretical and empirical studies of contentious politics. My current book project, Waging Stigma during Civil War, investigates collective violence against LGBTIQ+ people during the Colombian civil war and ties these dynamics of violence to wartime social transformation processes. At All Souls, I will begin a new research project, tentatively titled Purity & War, which explores the phenomenon of 'social cleansing' in Latin America through a genealogy of the concept of 'subversion’, and its variations, in the region. I have further research interests in the study of LGBTIQ+ displacement, the semiotics of violence, and aesthetic/artistic practice during contentious politics. In 2026, I will publish, with Rebecca Buxton, The Way Out: Justice in the Queer Search for Refuge (University of California Press), which explores the stakes of LGBTIQ+ inclusion in displacement justice debates and articulates a new relational approach to conceptualizing the drivers of displacement.
www.samuelritholtz.com
