Conference Day 1: Wednesday, May 14

9:00 – 10:30 AM | Virtual Panel: Legal Framings of Disappearance

  • Grazyna Baranowska, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg / UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

  • Bernard Duhaime, Université du Québec à Montréal/Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence

  • Anna Rahel Fischer, UC Berkeley

  • Pietro Sferrazza Taibi, Human Rights Center at the Universidad de Chile

Moderator: Guilherme Vasconcelos, ITAM (Mexico)

Modality: virtual. Location: Zoom

12:00 - 1:00 PM | Virtual Panel: Artivism and Migration in Latin America

  • Derli Romero, Artist

  • Kim López, University of New Mexico

Moderator: Joseph Wager, Stanford University

Modality: virtual. Location: Zoom

Conference Day 2: Thursday, May 15

9:00 – 10:30 AM | Virtual Panel: (Legal) Complementarity and Embodied Knowledges of the Search (in Spanish)

  • Matilda González Gil, Unit for the Search of Persons Assumed to Be Disappeared (Colombia)

  • Lisa Ott, swisspeace

  • Constanza Ramírez Molano, Otras Voces

  • Carolina Robledo Silvestre, CIESAS-Ciudad de México

Moderator: Amanda Smith, UC Santa Cruz

Modality: Virtual. Location: Zoom

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | Virtual Panel: Phenomenological Accounts of Displacement and Disappearance

  • Promise Ejiofor, University of Cambridge

  • Ayten Gündoğdu, Barnard College

  • Julia Neusner, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)

  • Juliana Martínez, American University

Moderator: Anna Rahel Fischer, UC Berkeley

Modality: Virtual. Location: Zoom.

2:30 – 4:00 PM | Virtual Panel: Social Narratives in the Aftermath of Disappearance (Spanish with English translation via Zoom)

  • Cath Collins, Observatorio Justicia Transicional, Universidad Diego Portales / Ulster University

  • Luz Marina Monzón, Creator and First Director of the Unit for the Search of Persons Assumed to Be Disappeared (Colombia)

  • Luis Gómez Romero, University of Wollongong

  • Jennifer Alpert, Stanford University

Moderator: Joseph Wager, Stanford University

Modality: Virtual. Location: Zoom

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM | Workshop: Methods in Documenting Disappearance (a hands-on session focused on strategies used to document human-rights abuses such as enforced disappearance)

  • Delia Caicedo, Human-Rights Advocate (Fundación Guagua, Colombia)

  • Omar Gómez Trejo, Human-Rights Lawyer and Former Lead Prosecutor for the “caso Ayotzinapa”

  • Hershini Young, UT Austin

Moderator: Joseph Wager, Stanford University

Modality: in-person. Location: Center for Human Rights and International Justice (Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305); light refreshments provided 

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM | Pop-up at the Center for Latin American Studies and Interactive Presentation on Artivism and the Search with Delia Caicedo of Fundación Guagua

Modality: In-person. Location: Center for Latin American Studies/Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row, Stanford, CA 94305)

Conference Day 3: Friday, May 16

10:00 – 11:00 AM | Disappearance on Screen

  • Martha González, Buscadora

  • Rodrigo Reyes, Filmmaker 

Moderator: Ximena Briceño, Stanford University

Modality: in-person and virtual. Location: Zoom (sign up here for link)/in person at Pigott Hall, Room 216 (450 Jane Stanford Way Pigott Hall, Stanford, CA 94305); light refreshments provided

11:30 AM – 1:00 PM | Languages and Cartographies of Absence

  • Adedayo Agarau, Stanford University and author of The Days of Blood

  • Chantal Flores, journalist and author of Huecos

  • Aracelis Girmay, Stanford University and author of the black maria

  • Priscilla Wathington, poet, human-rights advocate, and author of Paper and Stick

Moderator: Hershini Young, UT Austin

Modality: in-person. Location: Pigott Hall, Room 216 (450 Jane Stanford Way Pigott Hall, Stanford, CA 94305); light refreshments provided

Lunch in person

2:00 PM – 5:00 PM | In-Person Panel: Global Cultural Responses beyond the Enforced-Disappearance Paradigm  

  • Gabriel Gatti, Universidad del País Vasco / Former Tinker Visiting Fellow at Stanford

  • Peter Leman, BYU

  • Olga Salazar Pozos, DePaul University

  • Debarati Sanyal, UC Berkeley

  • Hershini Young, UT Austin   

  • Rhiannon Welch, UC Berkeley

Moderator: Joseph Wager, Stanford University

Modality: in-person. Location: Pigott Hall, Room 216 (450 Jane Stanford Way Pigott Hall, Stanford, CA 94305); light refreshments provided

5:30 – 6:30 PM | Pop-up at the Center for Latin American Studies and Interactive Presentation on Artivism and the Search with Delia Caicedo of Fundación Guagua

Modality: in-person only. Location: Center for Latin American Studies/Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row, Stanford, CA 94305)

Conference Day 4: Saturday, May 17

12:00 – 2:00 PM | Workshop: Writing against Erasure as Organizing Practice

  • Luis Ávila, Writer and Community Organizer

  • Delia Caicedo, Human-Rights Advocate

  • Chantal Flores, journalist and author of Huecos

  • Gabriel Gatti, University of the Basque Country/Former Tinker Visiting Fellow at Stanford

  • Olga Salazar Pozos, DePaul University

Modality: in-person. Location: Center for Latin American Studies/Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row, Stanford, CA 94305); lunch provided

Conference Day 5: Monday, May 19

10:00 – 11:00 AM | Book Talk: Nightmare Remains: The Politics of Mourning and Epistemologies of Disappearance (2024)

  • Ege Selin Islekel, Texas A&M

Respondent: Kabir Tambar, Stanford University

Moderator: Müge Gedik, Stanford University

Modality: virtual. Location: Zoom (sign up here for link)/in person at Pigott Hall, Room 216 (450 Jane Stanford Way Pigott Hall, Stanford, CA 94305); light refreshments provided

12:00 – 2:00 PM | Workshop: Counting Absence, Writing Absence 

  • Gabriel Gatti, former Tinker Visiting Fellow at Stanford University and Professor of Sociology at the University of the Basque Country, will discuss his innovative approach to “contar” (counting) and lead a workshop on narrative strategies in the face of catastrophe

Modality: virtual and in-person. Location: Stanford Humanities Center, Board Room (424 Santa Teresa St, Stanford, CA 94305); lunch provided—Zoom option as well

1:00 - 4:00 PM | To conclude the Mapping Absence conference (https://events.stanford.edu/event/mapping-absence-exhibit), Green Library will present an exhibit showcasing special, rare, and unique items related to human rights in Latin America. The exhibit will feature a diverse range of materials, including artist's books addressing Chile's disappeared during the military dictatorship and the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students in Mexico. It will also include materials related to the making of films about Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the feminicides in Mexico's northern city of Juarez, as well as materials that explore the multifaceted experiences of migration, encompassing hope, abuses, and resilience. Modality: in-person. Location: Green Library, Hohbach/SVA #123 (557 Escondido Mall, Stanford, CA 94305)