Oriana Bernasconi

Her research spans the sociology of violence and human rights, the sociology of knowledge applied to human rights, the sociology of the subject and subjectivities, the sociology of memory, citizenship and education, human rights violations, reparations and public policies, and social and cultural theory and its relationship to social research methods. Over the past decade she has carried out research in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia.  She is Director of the Millennium Nucleus on “Research into the State Production and Use of Data on Serious Human Rights Violations” (Data Justa), Principal Investigator of the FONDECYT Regular Project “Knowledge Infrastructures and Regimes of State Intervention: A Latin American Study of National Search Plans for Forcibly Disappeared Persons,” and Principal Investigator at the Millennium Institute on Violence and Democracy (VioDemos).  Over the years she has secured 10 competitive research grants from Chilean and British institutions, leading six of these projects, including: the Social Sciences Ring “Political Technologies of Memory: Contemporary Uses and Appropriation of Past Human Rights Violations Registry Devices in Chile,” in collaboration with the Universidad Austral de Chile and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, funded by ANID; “Political Violence and Human Rights Violations Accountability: Circumstances, Uses and Effects of Forced Disappearance Registration. Lessons from a Comparative Perspective in the Americas,” in collaboration with the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad Iberoamericana, and Goldsmiths College, funded by the Newton Fund; “Political Technologies of Memory: A Genealogy of Registration and Denunciation Devices for Human Rights Violations under the Military Dictatorship in Chile (1973–2013),” in collaboration with the University of Oxford, funded by the Newton Foundation and the National Commission for Science and Technology of Chile; and “Documentality and Display: Archiving and Curating the Violent Past in Contemporary Argentina, Chile and Colombia” (co-investigator), in collaboration with the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, the Universidad Tres de Febrero, and Goldsmiths College, funded by the British Academy.  Throughout these research endeavors she has contributed to the development of national, Latin American, and global networks in close collaboration with public bodies and civil society organizations. Through artworks, digital educational platforms on human rights, digital documents, and illustrated videos, she seeks to extend the reach of her research to diverse audiences.  Her research project “Political Technologies of Memory” was recognized with the 2018 Newton Fund Americas Award from the United Kingdom for its scientific excellence and global impact.  Her scholarly output includes two books, more than 45 journal articles and book chapters, and the editing of four special issues in scientific journals in three languages.