University of Texas at El Paso

Description

From 2018 to 2020, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the project 'Mobile Solutions to the Mexican Kidnapping Epidemic: Beyond Elite Counter-Measures Towards Citizen-Led Innovation'. One of the aims of this initiative was to explore how societal insecurity born of kidnapping has contributed to new transborder Mexican communities. It was also focused on how private security specialists offer cross-border services to protect clients from kidnap risk and resolve abduction scenarios in Mexico. Furthermore, it worked towards forging transnational connections with, and learning lessons from, activist groups who have confronted kidnapping in Colombia.

For this reason, I did two visiting scholarships at The University of El Paso in Texas to do fieldwork concentrating on the US-Mexico borderlands, particularly on the transborder hubs of El Paso/Juarez and San Diego/Tijuana. The project examined the ways in which the Mexican kidnapping epidemic shapes US-Mexico cross-border mobilities and the ways in which the effects of kidnapping manifest transborder reach. One result of my time at The University of El Paso in Texas was the organisation and development of the International Workshop 'Global Perspectives on Kidnapping and Crimes of. (Im)mobility' https://kidnappingworkshop.net/. All presentations can be accessed by clicking here: https://kidnappingworkshop.net/workshop-presentations/

Period	2018 → …
Visiting	University of Texas at El Paso
Degree of Recognition	International