Our book Fencing in Democracy by Miguel Diaz-Barriga
Review of Fencing in Democracy, 2023
Book review by Martha Menchaca
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Duke, 2020
Border walls permeate our world, with more than thirty nation-states constructing them. Anthropol... more Border walls permeate our world, with more than thirty nation-states constructing them. Anthropologists Margaret E. Dorsey and Miguel Díaz-Barriga argue that border wall construction manifests transformations in citizenship practices that are aimed not only at keeping migrants out but also at enmeshing citizens into a wider politics of exclusion. For a decade, the authors studied the U.S.-Mexico border wall constructed by the Department of Homeland Security and observed the political protests and legal challenges that residents mounted in opposition to the wall. In Fencing in Democracy Dorsey and Díaz-Barriga take us to those border communities most affected by the wall and often ignored in national discussions about border security to highlight how the state diminishes citizens' rights. That dynamic speaks to the citizenship experiences of border residents that is indicative of how walls imprison the populations they are built to protect. Dorsey and Díaz-Barriga brilliantly expand conversations about citizenship, the operation of U.S. power, and the implications of border walls for the future of democracy.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Papers by Miguel Diaz-Barriga
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Anthropology News, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Visual Anthropology Review, 2010
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Transnational EncountersMusic and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border, 2011
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Black Studies, 2007
Page 1. http://jbs.sagepub.com/ Journal of Black Studies http://jbs.sagepub.com/ content/38/1/90 ... more Page 1. http://jbs.sagepub.com/ Journal of Black Studies http://jbs.sagepub.com/ content/38/1/90 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/0021934707304960 2007 38: 90 originally published online 18 ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2015
Residents of South Texas live in a “Constitution free zone,” as one of our informants explained. ... more Residents of South Texas live in a “Constitution free zone,” as one of our informants explained. Court rulings have declared that the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution does not apply at checkpoints and spaces up to 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border. This article draws upon Agamben's arguments about “states of exception” and Foucault's notion of the “carceral state” to show that border residents live in a state of legal exception, in which the modalities characteristic of mass incarceration are extended from prison, where search and seizure is always classified as “reasonable,” into everyday life. We introduce the concept “state of carcelment” to describe how these modalities operate on the ground, through mass incarceration and internal checkpoints, to inter, so to speak, an entire region. With the potential diffusion of this “state of carcelment” beyond the border region, anthropologists are poised to critically engage its legal and cultural normalization. [State of exception, border security, Mexican American, Constitution free zone, prisons, checkpoints, race, gender, carcelment]
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Anthropology Now
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Alteridades, 2002
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Interview with Miguel Diaz-Barriga and Margaret Dorsey
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Anthropology News, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Residents of South Texas live in a " Constitution free zone, " as one of our informants explained... more Residents of South Texas live in a " Constitution free zone, " as one of our informants explained. Court rulings have declared that the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution does not apply at checkpoints and spaces up to 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border. This article draws upon Agamben's arguments about " states of exception " and Foucault's notion of the " carceral state " to show that border residents live in a state of legal exception, in which the modalities characteristic of mass incarcer-ation are extended from prison, where search and seizure is always classified as " reasonable, " into everyday life. We introduce the concept " state of carcelment " to describe how these modalities operate on the ground, through mass incarceration and internal checkpoints, to inter, so to speak, an entire region. With the potential diffusion of this " state of carcelment " beyond the border region, anthropologists are poised to critically engage its legal and cultural normalization. In her introduction, Mieka Polanco asks: " Who better [than anthropologists] to prob-lematize the 'common sense-ness' of mass incarceration—or of other more invisible (but equally racialized) forms of punishment perpetuated daily by the state? " We take up Polanco's call and interrogate the process through which the state of carcelment becomes normalized. More specifically, and as Angela Davis (2003) reminds us, we focus on the racialized and gendered nature of this process. We invite the reader to think of the meaning and process of interring an entire region—not by coincidence a region in which approximately 90 percent of the population is of Mexican origin. 1 Furthermore, we suggest that this state of carcelment not only centers on punishment and imprisonment but also relies on a state of exception, in which Fourth Amendment rights are suspended, producing specific modalities of power and citizenship. The characteristics of mass incarceration (and, in particular, the disproportionate incarcer-ation of people of Mexican descent) have been extended from prison, where search and seizure is always classifed as " reasonable, " to everyday life in the borderlands.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This article argues that visual representations of the U.S.–Mexico border wall in the popular med... more This article argues that visual representations of the U.S.–Mexico border wall in the popular media, including Time Magazine and National Geographic, portray the border region as lifeless and desolate. These representations negate the possibility of viewing the border as a dynamic and diverse area that is verdant and home to communities and rich cultural histories. The article begins with an overview of popular representations of the U.S.–Mexico border, focusing on the ways that this imagery reinforces calls for militarizing it. The authors then offer alternative representations of the border through their own anthropological photo essay of the U.S.–Mexico border wall. [Key words: border fence, Chicano/a studies, militarization, South Texas, U.S.–Mexico Border]
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Our book Fencing in Democracy by Miguel Diaz-Barriga
Papers by Miguel Diaz-Barriga
organized by Miguel Diaz-Barriga and Margaret Dorsey
on view June 2 - July 30, 2016 at apexart - nyc - See more at: http://apexart.org/images/diaz-dorsey.php#sthash.kZykf4i8.dpuf
This bilingual (English and Spanish) group exhibition will bring together work by artists, activists, architects and other public intellectuals who created alternative designs for the US Mexico border wall or fought its construction. The major questions that this exhibition will address include: How can we reassert a more populist notion of sovereignty by reimagining borders and border walls? What is the role of art and architecture in providing a bulwark against the erosion of democracy that border walls materialize?