Mercedes is a PhD candidate in the Visual Cultures Department at Goldsmiths. Her current research interrogates images of violence in Mexico and their effects on subjectivity and the social bond. She is an Associate Lecturer in the Beyond Boundaries module for the BA History of Art.

 

From a background at the intersection of philosophy, psychoanalysis, aesthetics, and visual studies, Mercedes’ main research areas are violence, social and human rights movements, memory studies, and art. Her previous dissertations address the problem of forced disappearances in Mexico and South America and the politics of memory after the region’s dictatorships, emphasising the cultural and artistic practices that accompanied them.

 

Mercedes has worked in different non-governmental organisations and independent projects. From 2009 to 2012, she participated in Telar de Raíces, which was dedicated to building networks of cooperation and collaboration between different indigenous and non-indigenous communities, groups, and actors in Mexico. As part of this organisation, Mercedes coordinated a cultural festival in Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico, in 2012. From 2017 to 2019, she was a coordinator in an organisation dedicated to providing mental health support for mothers and caretakers of young children in Mexico City.