Project description DEENESFRITPL The role of digital media in remembering disappearance In September 2014, 43 students disappeared in Mexico, and digital media played a crucial role in capturing citizens’ attention and generating a countermovement against the Mexican government. This case in Mexico serves as a paradigm for redefining the relationship between media and memory. The ERC-funded DigitalMemories project aims to investigate the impact of digital media on the formation of transnational memories related to disappearances. The project will adopt a theoretical approach that views ‘disappearance’ as a distinct crime, providing a framework for analysing digital memory. A multidisciplinary perspective will be applied, considering Mexico's case within the broader context of a long history of disappearance in the Hispanic World. It will also compare the use of social media in Mexico with that in Spain and Argentina. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective The project seeks to study the role of digital media in the shaping of transnational memories on disappearance. It investigates a novel case that is in process of shaping: the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in September 2014. The role of the new media in getting citizens’ attention and in marking a “turning point” was crucial to the upsurge of a counter-movement against the Mexican government and qualifies the event as significant for the transnational arena.The groundbreaking aspect of the project consists in proposing a double approach: a) a theoretical approach in which “disappearance” is considered as a particular crime that becomes a model for analyzing digital memory. Disappearance is a technology that produces a subject with a new ontological status: the disappeared are non-beings, because they are neither alive nor dead. This ontological status transgresses the clear boundaries separating life and death, past, present and future, materiality and immateriality, personal and collective spheres. “Digital memory”, i.e. a memory mediated by digital technology, is also determined by the transgression of the boundaries of given categories b) a multidisciplinary approach situating Mexico´s case in a long transnational history of disappearance in the Hispanic World, including Argentina and Spain. This longer history seeks to compare disappearance as a mnemonic object developed in the global sphere –in social network sites as blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube– in Mexico and the social performances and artistic representations –literature, photo exhibitions, and films– developed in Spain and Argentina. The Mexican case represents a paradigm for the redefinition of the relationship between media and memory. The main output of the project will consist in constructing a theoretical model for analyzing digital mnemonic objects in the rise of networked social movements with a transnational scope. Fields of science humanitieslanguages and literaturegeneral language studieshumanitieshistory and archaeologyhistorysocial scienceslawinternational lawsocial sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiescivil societyhumanitiesartsart history Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-StG-2015 - ERC Starting Grant Call for proposal ERC-2015-STG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-STG - Starting Grant Host institution KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN Net EU contribution € 1 403 150,00 Address OUDE MARKT 13 3000 Leuven Belgium See on map Region Vlaams Gewest Prov. Vlaams-Brabant Arr. Leuven Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 403 150,00 Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN Belgium Net EU contribution € 1 403 150,00 Address OUDE MARKT 13 3000 Leuven See on map Region Vlaams Gewest Prov. Vlaams-Brabant Arr. Leuven Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 403 150,00 FUNDACION UNIVERSIDAD DE SAN ANDRES Argentina Net EU contribution € 40 975,00 Address VITO DUMAS 284 1644 Victoria Buenos Aires See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 40 975,00
