Lachlan Summers

My PhD project explores social, political and health fallouts of Mexico City’s 2017 earthquake. Because this earthquake fell on the anniversary of the city’s 1985 earthquake, a key aspect of my research is how people make sense of coincidence, and how this awful repetition shapes residents’ sense of seismic exposure. Working with damnificados, civil responders, and victim advocacy networks in Mexico City, I research both the politics of the post-2017 present and the ongoing twists in the relationship between Mexican time and Mexican history.

My MA, from University of Melbourne, Australia, examined the social construction of city space, looking in particular at how anarchist politics generate unique senses of proximity and distance, and produce wild cartographies of the city. Outside of academia, I have also worked in Indigenous land rights, adult education, and refugee advocacy.