Simon Granovsky-Larsen

Dr. Simon Granovsky-Larsen is an Associate Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Regina. With a background in Political Science, International Development, and Latin American Studies, Simon’s writing is interdisciplinary and has been focused on Guatemala, and on Central America more broadly. His research explores social movements and political violence across Central America during the period of regional democratic and neoliberal reform since the 1990s. Recent projects have looked at the expansion of renewable energy production in Central America; violence against land and environmental defenders; changes to paramilitary violence; the militarization of extractive industries, including the security practices of Canadian companies; and the role of social movements and agrarian conflicts in the Guatemalan peace process. His research has appeared in Latin American Perspectives, Journal of Peasant Studies, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, NACLA Report on the Americas; in various books; and in online and magazine publications including The Conversation, Canadian Dimension, Briarpatch, Upside Down World, and NACLA.

Simon published two books in 2019. Dealing with peace: The Guatemalan campesino movement and the post-conflict neoliberal state (University of Toronto Press) looks at how the Guatemalan campesino (peasant) social movement participated in the country’s peace process and neoliberal transition from the mid-1990s through the present day. Organized violence: Capitalist warfare in Latin America (University of Regina Press; co-edited with Dawn Paley) is an interdisciplinary collection of research on the relationship between capitalism and repressive violence in contemporary Latin America. In 2020, Simon began a new SSHRC-funded research project comparing the security practices of Canadian-financed extractive projects across Central America.

Simon teaches courses in the International Studies program, with an emphasis on the Development Studies stream. He supervises honours theses and graduate work on a range of topics, including Latin American politics, social movements, extractive industries, peace processes, rural development, migration, and more.

Recent Publications

Books

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2019). Dealing with peace: The Guatemalan campesino movement and the post-conflict neoliberal state. University of Toronto Press.

Paley, D., & Granovsky-Larsen, S. (Eds.). (2019). Organized violence: Capitalist warfare in Latin America. University of Regina Press.

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2007). La CICIACS: Defensores de derechos humanos y el estado de derecho en la posguerra (The CICIACS: Human rights defenders and the post-war rule of law). Guatemala: Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo and Oxfam-Novib.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2022). Institutionalized terror: Paramilitaries and the Guatemalan state. In J. Hristov, J. Sprague, & A. Tauss (Eds), The political violence of capital: Paramilitary formations in global perspective (pp. 71-87). Routledge.

Granovsky-Larsen, S., & Santos, L. (2021). From the war on terror to a war on territory: Corporate counterinsurgency at the Escobal mine and the Dakota Access Pipeline. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 46(1), 121-145.

Granovsky-Larsen, S., & Weisbart, C. (2021). Tahoe Resources' violent mining operation. In C. Nolin & G. Russell (Eds), Testimonio: Canadian mining in the aftermath of genocides in Guatemala (pp. 126-139).

Granovsky-Larsen, S., & Paley, D. (2019). Organized violence and the expansion of capital. In Organized violence: Capitalist warfare in Latin America (pp. 1-20). University of Regina Press.

Granovsky-Larsen, S., & Paley, D. (2019). Violence, expansion, resistance. In Organized violence: Capitalist warfare in Latin America (pp. 261-270). University of Regina Press.

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2019). Tierra y la reconfiguración del poder en la Guatemala posconflicto. In C. Pastor (Ed.), Concentración económica y poder político en América Latina (pp. 249-276). CLACSO.

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2018). In Guatemala, security forces square off against social movements. NACLA Report on the Americas, 50(1), 15-18.

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2017). The Guatemalan campesino movement and the post-conflict neoliberal state. Latin American Perspectives, 44(5): 53-73.

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2017). Land reform and the reconfiguration of power in post-conflict Guatemala. In L. North & T. Clark (Eds.), Dominant elites in Latin America, from neo-liberalism to the ‘pink tide’ (pp. 181-204). Palgrave Macmillan.

Granovsky-Larsen, S. (2013). Between the bullet and the bank: Agrarian conflict and access to land in neoliberal Guatemala. Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(2), 325-350.