$2,475; American Political Science Association Summer Centennial Center Research Grant; William A. Steiger Fund for Legislative Studies

Principal Investigator: Guillermina Seri, professor of political science

Memorializing Human Rights Abuses in Democratic Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

Back in the 1970s, military dictatorships in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina subjected tens of thousands of people to kidnappings, torture, and killings. Victims were taken to hundreds of clandestine detention sites, which served as scenarios for the military’s state terror. Years later, as democracy returned, demands expanded to memorialize locations and markers of the dictatorships’ abuses. Multiple initiatives developed with different degrees of state support.

PI Seri’s research examines the effect of government-sponsored memorial policies on current human rights agendas in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. She will conduct research on the politics of memory of military dictatorships through interviews with officials, experts, and activists and visits to memorial sites to identify and compare the embedded narratives about the past. Funding from the American Political Science Association’s Summer Centennial Center Research Grant program will support PI Seri’s travel to Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina during the spring of 2022.