DCII Big Challenge Series: Jason De León In-Person
Please join the DCII for the kickoff event in our 2025-26 Big Challenge Series on Understanding Migration: A lecture from Dr. Jason De León (University of California, Los Angeles), author of the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction Soldiers and Kings.
Based on the research for Soldiers and Kings, Jason De León puts the spotlight on the billion-dollar human smuggling industry that resulted from both the U.S. and Mexican immigration and border policies. Using his unforgettable photography and powerful prose, he documents the daily lives of Honduran smugglers who, due to heightened security measures, make profit from transporting undocumented migrants across Mexico. In this eye-opening talk, he discusses the evolving, complicated relationship between transnational gangs, the human smuggling industry, and the migrants caught in this violent social process.
Jason De León is Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Loyd E. Cotsen Endowed Chair of Archaeology and Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. De León is Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) Inc., a 501(c)(3) research, arts, and education collective that seeks to raise awareness about migration issues globally while also assisting families of missing migrants to be reunited with their loved ones.
Since 2009, the UMP has been studying clandestine migration between Latin America and the United States using a combination of ethnographic, visual, archaeological, and forensic approaches to understand this violent social process. De León has published numerous academic articles and his work with the UMP has been featured in a variety of popular media outlets.
He is the author of two award winning books: The Land of Open Graves; Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail (featuring photos by Michael Wells) and Soldiers and Kings. De León is also a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
- Date:
- Wednesday, September 17, 2025
- Time:
- 5:30pm - 7:30pm
- Time Zone:
- Central Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Moody Auditorium
Moody Auditorium is located on the first floor of Frances Anne Moody Hall. There will be a reception in the atrium of the auditorium starting at 5:30 with the lecture beginning at 6:00 in the auditorium. Appetizers will be served.
There is a visitor lot immediately next to Frances Anne Moody Hall, off Airline Drive, that visitors may use for a fee. Free parking passes to one of SMU's parking lots near the building will also be made available—those who request a pass at the time of registration will receive the pass via email a few days before the event. If you have any questions about parking passes, please email the DCII at dcinterdisciplinaryinstitute@smu.edu.
For more information about the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, please visit our website.
Any person who requires a reasonable accommodation on the basis of a disability in order to participate in this program should contact the DCII at dcinterdisciplinaryinstitute@smu.edu at least one week prior to the event to arrange for the accommodation.
Speakers express their own views and not necessarily the views of the DCII or SMU.