Memoryscapes of Disappearance in Mexico

This book argues for a broadening of the ways memory is conceptualised and practiced. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with artists, relatives, activists, and academics who are engaging in memory practices to fight for justice and search for Mexico's disappeared, it takes a rich empirical approach to explore memory work in depth, foregrounding how people are responding to and articulating their experiences of living with disappearance. Disappearance in its ambiguity is always present, never in the past, and so disrupts many assumptions about how and when to memorisalise traumatic events, and in Mexico disappearance is ongoing, further challenging assumptions of role of memory work and past atrocity. Prioritising the understandings and contradictions of those practicing memory work and foregrounding a politics of space and time in these, builds a sense of the memoryscapes of disappearance in Mexico, going beyond formal or public sites and memorials to spaces and practices not usually recognised as memorialisation.

Moving from the experiences of disappearance in contemporary Mexico to broader questions of societal and political structures, this book is inherently interdisciplinary and has relevance for those studying politics, critical international relations, Latin American studies, the history of human rights, transitional justice, sociology, and anyone with an interest in the issue of disappearance.

Danielle has worked as a researcher in academic, social policy, and community sectors. She explored her academic interest in the crossover of geography, memory, disappearance, and collaborative research practice in her doctoral research in the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University, Wales. This formed the basis of this book, her first monograph. Her broader interests span many social issues, including researching and writing on experiences of death and dying, arts-based and creative methods, Latin American politics, planning and regeneration, and public health. She is co-editor of the volume New perspectives on urban deathscapes (Edward Elgar, 2022), and coordinated several UK exhibitions on disappearance and violence in Mexico. She is currently Research Fellow in the Centre for Public Health, University of Bristol, UK.