Memory, narrative coherence, and the indeterminacy of identity guide my studies toward hauntology and narrative identities. Derrida’s insight that ‘to be is to be haunted’ reveals how existence is shaped by the past and the specters of lost futures. The present is never self-contained; it is always influenced by echoes of what was and what could have been. This haunting becomes most evident in moments of crisis, when broken expectations leave a residue of absence and unfulfilled potential.
The illusion of self-coherence depends on the assumed unreliability of memory. We construct consistent narratives by selectively reinterpreting the past, doubting memory’s accuracy to maintain stability. Yet memory may be entirely accurate: we have pursued both X and its opposite, held both A and its negation. Acknowledging this would mean accepting a fundamental indeterminacy in identity. Instead, we reshape past motivations to align with the present, retroactively constructing continuity.
Self-deception becomes necessary for meaning-making. Without it, we would confront the unsettling reality that we have drifted, driven by shifting and often contradictory impulses. The more invested we are in our self-concept, the more we alter memory to fit our narrative. Memory is not simply fallible—it is an active process of reconstruction, validating our present through the past.
This process is essential to understanding deviance and migration, which are shaped by disrupted temporalities. Migrants exist in haunted time: suspended between a past that will not release them, a present marked by instability, and a future that remains uncertain. Their identities carry lost possibilities, unresolved histories, and the weight of futures that never materialized. Hauntology reveals how these spectral elements influence decision-making, social belonging, and resistance.
Crime narratives also embody haunting. The specters of past choices, alternate paths not taken, and constrained future possibilities shape how individuals construct meaning around their actions. These narratives often reflect a struggle between coherence and contradiction, as individuals attempt to reconcile their actions with a fractured self-concept.
Hauntology provides a lens for analyzing how time, space, and identity intersect in crime and migration. The sensation of being trapped in an incomplete present, haunted by failed futures, is not just a philosophical condition—it is deeply political. Structures of exclusion render certain futures impossible, forcing individuals into precarious, stagnant temporalities. If haunting is a reminder of lost alternatives, its study is also a study of resistance: an insistence that those lost futures still hold power, shaping present struggles and decisions.
As I continue exploring these themes, I hope they will be acknowledged within academic discourse, despite increasing specialization and technical rigidity that resist interdisciplinary approaches. My work thrives on blending perspectives rather than compartmentalizing them, a position that both defines me and complicates my academic engagement. Whether this epistemological resistance can be dismantled remains uncertain, but I remain committed to demonstrating that the specters of the past—and the futures they foreclosed—continue to demand our attention.
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