Violence is not some abstract concept or mere theoretical problem. Ever timely and yet equally timeless, it represents a violation in the very conditions that constitute what it means to be human. Violence is always an attack upon a person’s dignity, their sense of selfhood, and their future. It is nothing less than the desecration of one’s position in the world. It is a denial and outright assault on the very qualities that we claim make us considered members of this social fellowship and shared union called “civilization.” Yet we also know violence demands deeper thinking, especially when considering its most extreme manifestations. Mindful of this, I was delighted by the invitation to guest-edit this volume. From the outset, it was agreed that we should attend to the extremities of violence, which take us to the violence of disappearance and oblivion, while also returning to a previous collaboration that sought to rethink some of the most important canonical writings on the subject.

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Contributions on this have been provided by Elise Feron, Valérie Rosoux, Terrell Carver, Lina Malagon and Ana Cristina Portillo, Roddy Brett, Richard English, Phil Scraton, Daniele Rugo, and Chantal Meza. As a Mexican artist whose work has intimately dealt with the issues of disappearance and violence, Chantal’s work is also featured throughout the edition.