Body Concepts
Migratory Bodies
The Body Concepts series is based on the principle of transdisciplinary encounters. The session begins with a lecture by Jason de León, followed by a dialogue with artist Azadeh Ganjeh.
LECTURE BY JASON DE LEÓN: In 2014, Mexico (with financial and logistical support from the Obama administration) launched Programa Frontera Sur, a security enforcement project aimed at stopping Central American migrants from reaching the U.S./Mexico border. In response to this heightened security, migrants have turned to transnational gangs such as MS-13 who have become increasingly involved in the human smuggling industry over the last decade.
In this talk I discuss my new book "Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling", a long-term ethnographic study focused on understanding the daily lives of Honduran smugglers who profit from transporting migrants across the length of Mexico. Using the stories of several smugglers, I examine the relationship between transnational gangs and the clandestine migration industry, the brutal toll that migration plays on people's bodies, and the difficulties of doing ethnography in this violent and ethically challenging context.
Link for livestream. Free admission. In English.
JASON DE LEÓN is Professor of Anthropology and Chicana, Chicano, and Central American Studies and Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a research-arts-education non-profit focused on raising awareness about issues related to migration and assisting families of missing migrants search for their loved ones. De León is Head Curator of the ongoing global exhibition “Hostile Terrain 94” and author of the award-winning book “The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail.” He is a 2017 MacArthur Fellow. His new book "Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling" was published by Viking in March of 2024 and long-listed for the National Book Award.
AZADEH GANJEH is a Professor für Theater und Tanz im Sozialen at HKS Ottersberg, a performer, performance artist-activist, and dramaturge from Tehran, Iran. She holds a Master's in Theater Directing from Tehran Art University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy-Theatre Studies from Bern University. After returning to Iran, she became a professor at Tehran University, initiating curriculum reforms. Since leaving Iran in April 2022, she has lectured and researched at the University of Hildesheim and other institutions while continuing her artistic career. Azadeh specializes in creating spaces of appearance through performing arts, participatory performances, performative interventions in urban spaces, immersive theater productions, and community theater for social-political empowerment. Her research focuses on the performativity of the body, politics of space, aesthetics of performativity, emancipation through performing arts, and activism in performance art.