Practicum

The “Mexico’s Disappeared Practicum” combines research and pedagogy, giving students the opportunity to learn about the phenomenon of disappearance while gaining experience in conducting social science research. They learn and practice methods and techniques including interviews, digital ethnography, library and archival research, and GIS mapping in order to produce useful and new empirical findings.

History of the “Mexico’s Disappeared Practicum”

The original design of the Practicum's work was done in coordination with Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas (CNB), and for its initial years was carried out in close collaboration with Zacatecas state's Comisión Local de Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas (CLBZ). The CNB has a legal mandate to produce “context analysis of disappearances." Chronically underfunded and understaffed, the CNB had published only two state-level Context Analyses in 2022, when our Practicum began. There were thus 30 states remaining that had not yet have published analyses of the social context of disappearances, an exercise that is critical for finding patterns of disappearances, and for the development of strategies for prevention.  

In its first two years, the Practicum’s main objective was to support the production of these analyses by conducting research on disappearance in Zacatecas, Mexico. A state that has one of the most severe disappearance crises in the country. The students of Practicum 2022 provided useful material for the discovery patterns of disappearance, producing reports on relevant environmental, criminological, and political economic factors. Building upon the research of the first year, the Practicum 2023 furthered the criminological and political economic research and added an analysis into the “Zone of Silence” and the role of social media.

This Year’s Practicum

During academic year 2024-25, students in the Practicum conducted research to deepen our understanding of the overall phenomenon of disappearance. Building upon prior findings, they analyzed the connections between drug retail, forced recruitment, pop culture, social media, and migration, and disappearance.