UCM to Host Anthropologist & Author Jason De León on Campus in April

Anthropologist and award-winning author Jason De León will present a public lecture on April 7 at UCM.

 

The University of Central Missouri (UCM) and the McClure Archives and University Museum invite the community to a public lecture by anthropologist and award-winning author Jason De León on Tuesday, April 7.

De León, a renowned scholar of migration along America's southern border, will have several events on campus during his visit April 6-7, including class visits, a student reception and a faculty and staff reception. 

He will present a lecture at 6 p.m. April 7 in Nahm Auditorium in the W.C. Morris Building, followed by a book signing. Both are free and open to the public. The University Store will have copies of his book available for purchase at the lecture.

De León is a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he serves as director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Loyd E. Cotsen Endowed Chair of Archaeology, and professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies. 

He is also the executive director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) Inc., a 501(c)(3) research, arts and education collective that seeks to raise awareness about migration issues globally while also assisting families of missing migrants to be reunited with their loved ones. 

Since 2009, the UMP has been studying clandestine migration between Latin America and the United States using a combination of ethnographic, visual, archaeological and forensic approaches to understand this violent social process. De León has published numerous academic articles and his work with the UMP has been featured in a variety of popular media outlets. 

He is the author of two award-winning books: “The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail,” featuring photos by Michael Wells, and “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling.” “Soldiers and Kings” won the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. De León is also a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

For more information about De León, visit jasonpatrickdeleon.com. For more information about his UCM visit, contact Amber Clifford, professor of Anthropology and director of the McClure Archives and University Museum, at clifford@ucmo.edu.