The power of interdisciplinary research methods is based on the ability to abstract from the specific details of the phenomena on which it is discussed and create general postulates valid for all particular objects of study through an epistemic synthesis. This synthesis (as is the case of this issue) sometimes emanates from a concept that, used in different instances, represents phenomena of a very plural nature.

Such is the case of the feminine noun mission. We find it designating from the succession of religious wars incited by the Catholic Church during the Full Middle Ages known as The Crusades to the attempts to develop nuclear technologies in inhospitable environments in the second half of the 20th century. In all cases they represent the transmission of a mandate or faculty that is carried out over time and space.

Thus, the common thread of the works in the dossier of this issue is (as the guest editors comment) the concept of mission as itineraries, movements and material culture.

The dossier is complemented by an interview with Claudia Agostoni Urencio, researcher at the IIH at UNAM. Dr. Agostoni's research topics can be framed in the area of ​​Modern and Contemporary History and are related to the history of public health and its institutions, a very pertinent topic for the time that passes.

Accompanying the material described above are two book reviews and three papers in the independent communications section.