Frederick Douglass Human Rights Lecture Featuring Jason De León

Jason De León is Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Loyd E. Cotsen Endowed Chair of Archaeology, 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 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.” Soldiers and Kings won the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. De León is also a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow.