Research Topic:

Governing victimhood in contemporary Mexico: the genealogy and the social life of a category of politics 

Supervisors:

Dr Claire Moon (Department of Sociology) and Dr Robin Archer (Department of Sociology)

Research Interests:

Political sociology; anthropology of the state; theories of subjectivity; sociology of human rights and humanitarianism; sociology of memory; sociology of emotions; Mexican political system; interview analysis; discourse analysis; violence and social suffering; international political sociology. 

Thesis Abstract:

My thesis studies how political subjectivity is constructed and contested in victim-led social movements and victim support state agencies in contemporary Mexico, a country ravaged by a spiral of generalised violence, criminality, and gross human rights violations.   

Based mostly on in-depth phenomenological interviews with victim activists, human rights practitioners, and victim support bureaucrats, this project sheds light on the institutional and cultural challenges that people affected by violence must face in order to be recognised as bearers of rights and deserving of compassion. 

Publications:

Rodrigo Círigo-Jiménez and Mateus Mendonça (2022), “In Conversation with Professor Saskia Sassen: On a Sociology for a New Epoch”, New Sociological Perspectives, 2(1), pp. 135-146. 

Avani Ashtekar, Rodrigo Círigo-Jiménez, and María Santi (2022), “In Conversation with Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa: on Engaged Sociology for the Struggle against Oppression”, New Sociological Perspectives, 2(2), pp. 125-137.  

Claire Moon and Javier Treviño-Rangel (2023), “Involucrado en algo”: negación y estigma en la “guerra contra las drogas” de México, translated to Spanish by Rodrigo Círigo, Revista Colombiana de Sociología, 46(1), pp. 327-358.