Jason De León

I am anthropologist whose research interests include theories of violence, materiality, death and mourning, Latin American migration, crime and forensic analyses, and archaeology of the contemporary. I direct the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a long-term study of clandestine border crossing that uses a combination of ethnographic, archaeological, and forensic approaches to understand this phenomenon in a variety of geographic contexts including the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona, Northern Mexican border towns, and the southern Mexico/Guatemala border. 

The UMP will be running an ethnographic/archaeological field school in the summer of 2015 in Chiapas, Mexico focused on understanding the experiences of Central American migrants crossing Mexico. Information on that field school can be found here http://www.ifrglobal.org/

I am also developing a large-scale project on urban violence, Latinos, and crime scene analysis.

Note: Graduate students interested in working directly with Dr. De León should apply to the sociocultural program in anthropology

Research Areas(s)

• Violence
• materiality
• Latino migration
• Forensic Science
• Archaeology of the Contemporary

Affiliation(s)

• Latino/a Studies Program

Award(s)

• 2013 National Geographic Emerging Explorer