Roundtable - Executive Session Status Awarded

Sponsored by: AAA Executive Program Committee

Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Teachers of Anthropology in Community Colleges, Students

Primary Theme: Immigration/Migration/Citizenship

Secondary Theme: Social movements

(5-0045) Anthropologists adapting to Anti-Immigrant Climates: Resistance and resilience on campuses and in communities

Anthropologists working with (im)migrants and refugee communities are engaged in heated political debates over migration, globalism, citizenship, inclusion, and belonging. Many of us have been drawn into political and advocacy work on our campuses and in our communities alongside and on behalf of our immigrant, undocumented, and precariously-documented students as they confront increasingly-restrictive policies and immigration enforcement practices and resist political hostility while adapting to existential uncertainty. In 2016, the group Anthropologist Action Network for Immigrants and Refugees (AANIR) formed as a vehicle for sharing experiences and strategizing about modes of anthropological engagement in uncertain times. AANIR has invited panelists in this roundtable to reflect on questions such as: How are our engagements alongside (im)migrant, undocumented, and precariously-documented students and communities evidence of new modes of doing anthropology -- in teaching, research, advocacy, and praxis? How might these engagements be modes of resistance and/or adaptation to the current political era? What are the limits of these engagements, and how are we addressing issues of power and privilege in our work? How are we responding to the heightened violence and uncertainty of ICE raids and enforcement actions on our campuses and communities? Are these responses forms of resistance to state power? How do anthropological engagements in immigrant rights movements offer insights into solidarity or acompañamiento as forms of resilience or adaptation? Do they offer novel ways of imagining citizenship and belonging from below? Finally, what does this work suggest for new modes of anthropological engagement in the 21st century?

Organizer(s)

• Kristin Yarris

  Associate Professor
  University of Oregon

Chair(s)

• Wendy Vogt

  Assistant Professor
  Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis

• Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

  Associate Professor
  Loyola University Chicago

Presenter(s)

• William Lopez

  Clinical Assistant Professor
  University of Michigan School of Public Health

• Mariela Nuñez-Janes

  Associate Professor
  University of North Texas

Discussant(s)

• Heide Castañeda

  Associate Professor
  University of South Florida

Presenter(s)

• Sarah Horton

  Associate Professor
  University of Colorado, Denver

• Christina Getrich

  Assistant Professor
  University of Maryland, College Park

• Lauren Heidbrink

  Assistant Professor
  California State University, Long Beach

• Deanna Barenboim

  Wesleyan University

Discussant(s)

• Whitney Duncan

  Associate Professor
  University of Northern Colorado