Alexa Hagerty

My research explores the social world of the forensic exhumation of mass graves. Working in the wake of political violence in Latin America, I focus on relationships between scientific experts, human rights activists and families of missing people. I am interested in the intersection of science and emotion, the meeting of advanced technology and ritual tradition, and what happens when our drive for knowledge comes up against the unknowable.

I am trained as a medical anthropologist and also draw extensively on science and technology studies and psychological anthropology. My theoretical interests include subjectivity, phenomenology and storytelling.