We are delighted that GUMELAB intern Valentina Mendez Höcherl has successfully completed her Master's thesis. In her thesis, entitled The roles of women in the Colombian drug trade and their portrayal in the narconovela Pablo Escobar - El Patrón del Mal, she investigates the role women play in the narconovela and the extent to which this influences viewers' understanding of the history of the Colombian drug conflict of the 1980s and 1990s. To this end, she first embedded the Colombian drug conflict in the historical context in order to build on this by examining the cultural staging of memory in the media with a focus on the representation of women. In a final step, she traced the development of historical and fictional stereotypes and archetypes in the narconovela. Congratulations on the successful completion of the Master's thesis.

Read more about the research stay and the tandem experiences of the GUMELAB scholarship holders.