Soldiers and Kings: Violence, Representation, and Photo-ethnographic Practice in the Context of Human Smuggling Across Mexico
Tuesday, March 20
Starts: Tuesday, 12:00 PM
Location: Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Ave
Since 2015 Jason DeLeón has been involved in an analog photoethnographic project focused on documenting the daily lives of Honduran smugglers who profit from transporting undocumented migrants across Mexico.
In this talk he discusses the relationship between transnational gangs and the human smuggling industry and outlines the complicated role that photography plays as a field method and data source in this violent and ethically challenging ethnographic context.
Jason De León is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and Director of the Undocumented Migration Project. He is the author of the 2015 book THE LAND OF OPEN GRAVES: LIVING AND DYING ON THE MIGRANT TRAIL (University of California Press). He received a 2017 MacArthur Foundation fellowship for his work highlighting the human consequences of immigration policy at the U.S.–Mexico border.
Lunch hors d’oeuvres will be provided!