The International Society for Metal Music Studies is devastated to share the news that Alfredo Nieves Molina, Coordinator de Education Continua del Instituto Investigaciones Antropológicas at UNAM, died on 12th June 2022, just hours after the closing of the enormously successful 5th Biennial ISMMS Conference that he organised and to which he gave so much.
In addition to his research on metal and the body in prisons, and his contributions to the Metal Seminar “Seminario de Estudios sobre Heavy Metal”, Alfredo worked tirelessly since the 2019 Nantes conference on the creation of this conference, dealing with difficult circumstances caused by the pandemic, and lately his own health complications.
As a Society and as a community of metal scholars, we are shocked and deeply saddened by Alfredo’s passing, and we are profoundly grateful for his work and for the extraordinary event he created. Though it was clear that he wasn’t feeling well at the conference he gave two strong presentations and made himself available as much as he could. He will always be remembered in Metal Studies as the individual who did so much to connect ISMMS to the Global South and for his passion for metal and scholarship. As we reflect on and build on this conference, our developing knowledge, our forging of connections, and our commitment to engagement between Global South and North in metal studies, will be a lasting tribute to him.
Our thoughts are with his family, friends, students, colleagues, and all those closest to him.
Rest in Power Alfredo,
ISMMS