Digging for the Disappeared: Forensic Science after Atrocity

The mass graves from our long human history of genocide, massacres, and violent conflict form an underground map of atrocity that stretches across the planet's surface. In the past few decades, due to rapidly developing technologies and a powerful global human rights movement, the scientific study of those graves has become a standard facet of post-conflict international assistance. Digging for the Disappeared provides readers with a window into this growing but little-understood form of human rights work, including the dangers and sometimes unexpected complications that arise as evidence is gathered and the dead are named.

Adam Rosenblatt examines the ethical, political, and historical foundations of the rapidly growing field of forensic investigation, from the graves of the "disappeared" in Latin America to genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. In the process, he illustrates how forensic teams strive to balance the needs of war crimes tribunals, transitional governments, and the families of the missing in post-conflict nations. Digging for the Disappeared draws on interviews with key players in the field to present a new way to analyze and value the work forensic experts do at mass graves, shifting the discussion from an exclusive focus on the rights of the living to a rigorous analysis of the care of the dead. Rosenblatt tackles these heady, hard topics in order to extend human rights scholarship into the realm of the dead and the limited but powerful forms of repair available for victims of atrocity.

About the author

Adam Rosenblatt is Assistant Dean for Global Engagement and Assistant Professor of Global Studies, Core Division, at Champlain College.

"This scholarly, richly documented work is written with great compassion for victims of human rights abuses. Rosenblatt delineates the norms, ethical issues, and complex politics that are relevant when forensic teams investigate gravesites after mass violence has occurred . . . A template for international, multidisciplinary, and volunteer teams with norms of enhanced sensitivity to cultural and political realities has clearly emerged . . . Recommended."

—P.G. Conway, CHOICE

"Digging for the Disappeared is an easy to read text which takes you on a journey in forensic anthropology, archaeology, and human rights work from its insurgence in Latin America and growth in the field thanks to the influence of luminaries such as the late Clyde Snow and Bill Haglund . . . [I]t carries its weight when it comes to the contents, detailed discussion on various themes including the merging human rights movement, transitional governments, and tribunals."

—Keith K. Silica, Staffordshire University

"A work of heart and mind, Digging for the Disappeared is a fascinating, much-needed critique of international forensic ethics and human rights. Rosenblatt rightly calls for a more humanistic approach to the medico-legal examination and care of mortal remains in the wake of mass atrocities and disasters. Required reading for anyone interested in the promotion of justice and social reconstruction in post-war societies."

—Eric Stover, coauthor of The Graves: Srebrencia and Vukovar

"Digging for the Disappeared chronicles an unavoidable chapter in the contemporary struggle for human rights—the search for the remains of the victims of the heinous crime of forced 'disappearances' and the inspiring efforts to train new generations of forensic scientists. It is a moving, thoroughly researched, essential book."

—José Zalaquett, University of Chile

"Digging for the Disappeared opens up the world of forensic investigations of human rights violations to reveal its political, practical, and philosophical complexities. Moving from Argentina to Poland, former Yugoslavia to Rwanda and beyond, Rosenblatt invites us to consider the rights of the dead alongside the politics of the living. The result is a compassionate, compelling call to understand the logics underwriting efforts to recover and name the missing."

—Sarah Wagner, George Washington University

"This book is as bottomless and as urgent as the grief of those whose loved ones lie in mass graves."

—Elaine Scarry, Harvard University

Stanford University Press blog

Digging for the Disappeared: Forensic Science After Atrocity

New Books Network (Genocide Studies)