The Emerging Scholars Workshop presents, An Archive of Unknown Human Remains: The Disposal of Unidentified Bodies in Cemeteries in Colombia, 1991-2021 by Natalia Mahecha Arango(NYU History Ph.D. candidate) with María Victoria Uribe (Universidad del Rosario) as the Discussant.
This event is organized by The Colombian Studies Initiative: Past, Present, and Futures (NYU/Universidad del Rosario). The event is invitation only will be held in Spanish. Please email colombianstudies@gmail.com for more information.
Event Description:
In this workshop, we will be reviewing the paper by NYU History Ph.D. candidate, Natalia Mahecha Arango, which examines how the public cemeteries moved from being considered as the final destination of unidentified corpses (N.Ns) to be defined as an archive of nameless bodies who could be potential victims of forced disappearance. In so doing, the article analyses the changes in the conceptions on both the N.N. bodies and the graveyards. Since the nineties, the unidentified dead bodies drew the attention of public opinion because they began to appear constantly. Even though some state institutions attempted to develop effective programs to identify these cadavers, many of them were buried as N.Ns in mass graves located inside public cemeteries. As a result of the pressure exerted by relatives of missing persons, NGOs, and international organizations, the Colombian state enacted in recent years a normative framework regarding the N.Ns and their proper burial in graveyards. The discourses of public health and human rights informed these regulations; however, only the second perspective managed to reshape the landscape of the cemeteries.
About The Emerging Scholars Workshop:
The Emerging Scholars Workshop is a program sponsored by the Colombian Studies Initiative in collaboration with NYU CLACS that offers Masters, Ph.D and advanced undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines to present current Colombia-related research or working papers to fellow scholars and peers.
The goal of these workshops is to expand interdisciplinary and intercollegiate academic exchange between participating students and faculty to continue the development and analysis of research concerning Colombia throughout NYU and other academic institutions. The workshop will offer a space for presenting students to create discussion and receive feedback from an expert scholar in their field of study.
