Location

Presented remotely

Start Date

12-3-2021 8:30 AM

End Date

12-2-2021 10:00 AM

Keywords

Human rights, disappearances, Mexico, research methods

Abstract

The global pandemic has transformed many structures, including the way in which human rights academics and practitioners carry out their work. This project is an example of human rights research using methods that can be applied remotely from any part of the world, and even replicated in other contexts or experiences.

The initiative is one of the projects from the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico led by Barbara Frey (University of Minnesota), Leigh Payne (Oxford University), and Karina Ansolabehere (UNAM-México), focused on the enforced disappearances crisis occurring in Mexico. The work included an extensive database created by coding open-sourced Mexican press articles from 2009 to mid-2018 from four Mexican states: Coahuila, Guerrero, Jalisco, and Nuevo León.

We would like to propose a roundtable about human rights research done remotely using open press sources, and focusing on Mexico’s disappearances as a case study. First, we would include an explanation of the methodology process we used to find and code press articles about disappearances, which was a process done remotely by our research assistants working from different countries. Secondly, we will present the main findings of our research focusing on a quantitative descriptive analysis and qualitative content analysis, based on the cases included in our database. Finally, we would like to provide insight on how this database could be used for other academic or educational purposes, and how it could be also replicated in other contexts and/or experiences of human rights violations across the world.

Author/Speaker Biographical Statement(s)

María Ignacia Terra is a Project Manager at the Human Rights Program of the University of Minnesota. She has been working on a research project about disappearances in Mexico since 2018. The initiative is one of the projects from the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico. Maria graduated with a Masters in Human Rights from the University of Minnesota in 2018. She was also an ICGC Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar during her time in graduate school. Maria is originally from Santiago, Chile, and her undergraduate work was done at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile receiving a Political Scientist degree. After that she pursued a Master’s degree in Political Science focused on International Relations at the same university. Maria has worked on different research projects related to the human rights field both in Chile and in the United States. As a data analyst on the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity team, Yolanda Burckhardt analyzed the raw data collected from the Mexican press. From her descriptive analysis, the Observatory has been able to make observations as to how the press reports on victims, perpetrators, and the nature of disappearances. Recently graduated from the Master of Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota, Yolanda was recently hired at Gender Justice as the Advocacy and Engagement Manager. Previously, she worked in the Civil Rights Department at the Met Council where she coordinated community engagement and racial equity strategic planning efforts for 4+ years. Before that, Yolanda worked in Hennepin County’s Public Health Department and Governor Dayton’s Administration. Yolanda is originally from the Twin Cities area and received her BA in Social Psychology and Community and Global Health from Macalester College.

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Dec 3rd, 8:30 AM Dec 2nd, 10:00 AM

Documenting Human Rights Violations: An Analysis of Press Reporting on the Mexican Disappearance Crisis

Presented remotely

The global pandemic has transformed many structures, including the way in which human rights academics and practitioners carry out their work. This project is an example of human rights research using methods that can be applied remotely from any part of the world, and even replicated in other contexts or experiences.

The initiative is one of the projects from the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico led by Barbara Frey (University of Minnesota), Leigh Payne (Oxford University), and Karina Ansolabehere (UNAM-México), focused on the enforced disappearances crisis occurring in Mexico. The work included an extensive database created by coding open-sourced Mexican press articles from 2009 to mid-2018 from four Mexican states: Coahuila, Guerrero, Jalisco, and Nuevo León.

We would like to propose a roundtable about human rights research done remotely using open press sources, and focusing on Mexico’s disappearances as a case study. First, we would include an explanation of the methodology process we used to find and code press articles about disappearances, which was a process done remotely by our research assistants working from different countries. Secondly, we will present the main findings of our research focusing on a quantitative descriptive analysis and qualitative content analysis, based on the cases included in our database. Finally, we would like to provide insight on how this database could be used for other academic or educational purposes, and how it could be also replicated in other contexts and/or experiences of human rights violations across the world.