Exploring Memory and Necropolitics

Tuesday, 8 July 2025: 15:00-16:45
Location: SJES026 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
RC48 Social Movements, Collective Actions and Social Change (host committee)

Language: English and Spanish

Necropolitics conceptually encapsulates how political power and state governance exert control over life and death, often infringing upon human dignity. Forced disappearances are among the most devastating consequences of armed conflicts, civil wars, and criminal violence, reflecting necropolitical frameworks.

This session explores how reimagining necropolitics, reparation, and memory through reparation, dignification, and social justice can better serve victims of forced disappearances and other crimes against humanity. We invite submissions on the following themes:

  • Theoretical and Conceptual Approaches: Exploration of necropolitics and its impact on memory and victims’ reparation practices in post-conflict societies.
  • Victim-Centred Reparations:Innovative frameworks and methodologies for reparations that prioritise victims as active agents, rather than passive recipients.
  • Civil Society and Grassroots Movements: Analysis of NGOs, grassroots organizations, and victim-led movements contribution to alternative reparations and justice mechanis
  • Challenges and Critiques of State-Led Approaches: Critical assessments of state-led reparation programs and their limitations in addressing the complex needs of victims.
  • Transnational Perspectives:Comparative studies of how different regions and conflicts approach the issue of forced disappearances, highlighting successful practices of memorialisation and ongoing challenges.

We invite submissions offering empirical research, case studies, theoretical insights, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Papers should explore reimagining reparation processes for more just outcomes for victims of forced disappearances. This session aims to foster a critical dialogue on the shortcomings of current reparation frameworks and envision transformative approaches that honour the memory, dignity, and agency of victims. By rethinking memory and reparations from a necropolitical perspective, we hope to address these grave human rights violations more effectively.

Session Organizers:
Natalia MAYSTOROVICH CHULIO, University of Sydney, Australia and Ailsa PEATE, University of Westminster, United Kingdom
Chair:
Natalia MAYSTOROVICH CHULIO, University of Sydney, Australia
Co-Chair:
Ailsa PEATE, University of Westminster, United Kingdom
Oral Presentations
The Necropolitics of Memory in Transitions: A Proposed Framework
Claire TAYLOR, United Kingdom; Camilo TAMAYO GOMEZ, The University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom; Catalina MONTOYA, Liverpool Hope University, United Kingdom
Transient Body, Transiting Body: The Disappeared or the Programmed Oblivion (Algeria)
Ratiba HADJ-MOUSSA, York University, Canada
Diasporic Justice: Yazidi Mobilization and Memory in Sweden after the Genocide
Cansu BOSTAN, Lund University, Sweden
Knowledge, Care and Repair. the State-Led Plan for Mass Graves Exhumations in Galicia (Spain).
Eléonore HADDIOUI, Belgium
Becoming a “Searcher” ("buscadora") in Necropolitical Mexico: Trajectories into Victimhood and Activism in the Aftermath of Forced Disappearance
Rodrigo Alberto CÍRIGO JIMÉNEZ, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Mexico
Distributed Papers
On Insurgent Knowledge and Affiliative Powers. Human Rights Violations, Civil Society Archives and Alternative Forms of Repair
Oriana BERNASCONI, Chile
From Victimization to Action: Collective Mobilization of Families of Disappeared Persons in Contemporary Mexico
Luis LOPEZ, CADIS, France
Intimidad Cultural y Sentidos De Justicia En Los Colectivos De Búsqueda De Personas Desparecidas En México
Arianna PANI, El Colegio de México, Mexico
See more of: RC48 Social Movements, Collective Actions and Social Change
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