New TAMIU Lecture Series on Social Sciences Bows Feb. 7 with ‘Invisible Graves: Migrant Deaths in the Texas Desert’
Written by admin, Jan 30, 2020, 0 Comments
Courtesy Steve Harmon,
(Laredo, Texas)-A new lecture series at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) aims to encourage a discussion of contemporary issues across the social sciences and bows Friday, Feb. 7.
Social Sciences Speakers Series organizer Dr. Sean A. Maddan, TAMIU associate professor and chair of the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of Social Sciences, said the Series is free of charge and open to all.
“We’re excited to present a slate of speakers who will introduce a range of research findings across the fields of anthropology, criminal justice, geography and sociology,” Dr. Maddan explained, “we encourage members of the University community and community at large to join us.”
The first in the new Series, “Invisible Graves: Migrant Deaths in the Texas Desert,” will be offered Friday, Feb. 7 in Academic Innovation Center (AIC), room 127 from 1 – 2 p.m. by Dr. Kate Spradley, Texas State University professor of Anthropology.
Dr. Spradley’s lecture shares the plight of thousands of Mexican and Central American migrants that cross the United States border every year. The majority of migrants that die in Texas, in their pursuit of refuge, asylum, or a better life, are buried in unmarked graves in remote cemeteries with no regard to identification efforts, violating human rights of the dead and creating a humanitarian crisis. As a forensic anthropologist with extensive experience exhuming and identifying unidentified migrants, Spradley will discuss migrant deaths in Texas within the broader context of migration, identification and repatriation, human rights, and dignity.
