In the following interview, the O’odham scholar and activist Nellie Jo David situates the 2020 O’... more In the following interview, the O’odham scholar and activist Nellie Jo David situates the 2020 O’odham uprising against the construction of the Trump administration’s border wall within the longer history of O’odham resistance to colonization. David discusses the revolts of 1695 and 1751 as significant moments when O’odham peoples united to contest colonial rule, noting how this history of struggle is important for mobilization against the intensification of the US-Mexico border militarization, policing, and surveillance during the twenty-first century.
This essay focuses on two performative acts. The first is the fall 2018 caravan, a work of politi... more This essay focuses on two performative acts. The first is the fall 2018 caravan, a work of political performance, which involved thousands of Central American migrants/refugees fleeing their countries in response to structural and other forms of violence. These caravaneros (caravaners) traveled collectively through Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to protect themselves from being targeted by state and nonstate actors en route to the US–Mexico border. The second performative act, which took place in Tijuana in January 2019, involved an artistic collaboration between Caleb Duarte and a group of caravaneros temporarily residing at El Barretal, a heavily guarded Mexican government-run refugee camp. Together, Duarte and the caravaneros co-authored a sculptural performance, creating a fabric ladder tied to helium balloons, which the wind lifted above the camp. I argue that Floating Ladder enacts how these caravaneros imagine their movement and mobility, as it challenges the regional immigration regime aiming to block migrants/refugees from making asylum claims in the US. Both the fall 2018 caravan and Duarte’s collaborative artwork with caravaneros are political acts by migrants/refugees that entailed the construction of social and political imaginaries beyond the constraints and violence of national borders.
This essay examines how migrant/refugee youth from Central America use their bodies as part of co... more This essay examines how migrant/refugee youth from Central America use their bodies as part of collaborative performances in which they narrate their experiences as social actors within the context of the so-called “child migrant crisis.” In Arte Urgente (Urgent Art) workshops organized by Caleb Duarte with students from Fremont High School’s Newcomer Education Support and Transition (NEST) Program, they created performances in which they staged a response to the structural conditions that compelled them to migrate and that shaped their everyday lives. The emphasis on performance resonates with the experience of these young people, who have to act, perform, and consciously play to a variety of specific audiences starting from the time they leave home. In addition to these performances, they also created a public artwork, the Embassy of the Refugee, in which they enact a performative agency, rather than seeking recognition from the US settler state. Although these migrant/refugee youth are for the most part excluded from having political agency within the process of applying for asylum, I argue that through their artwork they imagine other possibilities for themselves and for others outside the purview of state policies.
This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based op... more This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based oppositional practice, one that contests the sovereign power of the nation-state and the structural roots of multiple, intersecting oppressions. Like each contribution to this special issue, the introduction challenges readers to reconsider the meanings and possibilities of sanctuary movements across time and place. It raises contexts and themes that are investigated in the issue’s contributions on the struggles of migrant communities in a context of increasingly militarized borders, Indigenous practices of radical hospitality, GLBTQ spaces of refuge, policing reform efforts, and practices of civil disobedience. This introduction looks to both the history and the radical future of sanctuary.
During the first quarter of 1996, the mail order clothing company Lands' End circulated seve... more During the first quarter of 1996, the mail order clothing company Lands' End circulated several catalogs that highlight Peru as its source of cotton and use images of Peruvian workers to advertise its clothing. At the same time, the company's "bed and bath" subsidiary, Coming Home, ...
Ⅲ ABSTRACT: Th is article examines how Central American migrant/refugee youth imagine forms of sa... more Ⅲ ABSTRACT: Th is article examines how Central American migrant/refugee youth imagine forms of sanctuary through collaborative artwork as part of a series of Arte Urgente (Urgent Art) workshops led by artist Caleb Duarte. Th is artwork involved a critical embodiment and reenvisioning of their past and present experiences in the form of performance. In addition, their creation of a symbolic Embassy of the Refugee was an imaginative way of asserting their right to protection. Th is article examines how members of aff ected communities have made artistic interventions into public spaces to focus attention on the nation-state as a site of crisis as well as envision autonomous, noninstitutional sanctuary spaces for each other, while also engaging in ongoing practices of solidarity with other displaced people. Ⅲ
This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based op... more This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based oppositional practice, one that contests the sovereign power of the nation-state and the structural roots of multiple, intersecting oppressions. Like each contribution to this special issue, the introduction challenges readers to reconsider the meanings and possibilities of sanctuary movements across time and place. It raises contexts and themes that are investigated in the issue’s contributions on the struggles of migrant communities in a context of increasingly militarized borders, Indigenous practices of radical hospitality, GLBTQ spaces of refuge, policing reform efforts, and practices of civil disobedience. This introduction looks to both the history and the radical future of sanctuary.
In “Radical Histories of Sanctuary,” contributors explore both contemporary and historical invoca... more In “Radical Histories of Sanctuary,” contributors explore both contemporary and historical invocations of “sanctuary,” paying particular attention to its genealogies in social movements against state violence. Expanding the scope of sanctuary, they address not only immigrant activism but also topics such as indigenous strategies of survival in the Americas, gay liberation in rural spaces, and urban housing for refugees.
The essays contest liberal conventions of sanctuary that shore up the very forms of power and subjugation they seek to dismantle: from immigrant movements affirming the distinction between “good” and “bad” immigrants to gay liberation movements for police reform that fail to address the fundamental violence of policing. Examining both the liberatory potential of sanctuary and its limits, the contributors argue for intersectional strategies of resistance that connect the struggles of disparate groups against repressive and violent power.
The Undocumented Everyday: Migrant Lives and the Politics of Visibility, UMN Press, 2018
As debates over immigration increasingly become flashpoints of political contention in the United... more As debates over immigration increasingly become flashpoints of political contention in the United States, a variety of advocacy groups, social service organizations, filmmakers, and artists have provided undocumented migrants with the tools and training to document their experiences.
In The Undocumented Everyday, Rebecca M. Schreiber examines the significance of self-representation by undocumented Mexican and Central American migrants, arguing that by centering their own subjectivity and presence through their use of documentary media, these migrants are effectively challenging intensified regimes of state surveillance and liberal strategies that emphasize visibility as a form of empowerment and inclusion. Schreiber explores documentation as both an aesthetic practice based on the visual conventions of social realism and a state-administered means of identification and control.
As Schreiber shows, by visualizing new ways of belonging not necessarily defined by citizenship, these migrants are remaking documentary media, combining formal visual strategies with those of amateur photography and performative elements to create a mixed-genre aesthetic. In doing so, they make political claims and create new forms of protection for migrant communities experiencing increased surveillance, detention, and deportation.
In the following interview, the O’odham scholar and activist Nellie Jo David situates the 2020 O’... more In the following interview, the O’odham scholar and activist Nellie Jo David situates the 2020 O’odham uprising against the construction of the Trump administration’s border wall within the longer history of O’odham resistance to colonization. David discusses the revolts of 1695 and 1751 as significant moments when O’odham peoples united to contest colonial rule, noting how this history of struggle is important for mobilization against the intensification of the US-Mexico border militarization, policing, and surveillance during the twenty-first century.
This essay focuses on two performative acts. The first is the fall 2018 caravan, a work of politi... more This essay focuses on two performative acts. The first is the fall 2018 caravan, a work of political performance, which involved thousands of Central American migrants/refugees fleeing their countries in response to structural and other forms of violence. These caravaneros (caravaners) traveled collectively through Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to protect themselves from being targeted by state and nonstate actors en route to the US–Mexico border. The second performative act, which took place in Tijuana in January 2019, involved an artistic collaboration between Caleb Duarte and a group of caravaneros temporarily residing at El Barretal, a heavily guarded Mexican government-run refugee camp. Together, Duarte and the caravaneros co-authored a sculptural performance, creating a fabric ladder tied to helium balloons, which the wind lifted above the camp. I argue that Floating Ladder enacts how these caravaneros imagine their movement and mobility, as it challenges the regional immigration regime aiming to block migrants/refugees from making asylum claims in the US. Both the fall 2018 caravan and Duarte’s collaborative artwork with caravaneros are political acts by migrants/refugees that entailed the construction of social and political imaginaries beyond the constraints and violence of national borders.
This essay examines how migrant/refugee youth from Central America use their bodies as part of co... more This essay examines how migrant/refugee youth from Central America use their bodies as part of collaborative performances in which they narrate their experiences as social actors within the context of the so-called “child migrant crisis.” In Arte Urgente (Urgent Art) workshops organized by Caleb Duarte with students from Fremont High School’s Newcomer Education Support and Transition (NEST) Program, they created performances in which they staged a response to the structural conditions that compelled them to migrate and that shaped their everyday lives. The emphasis on performance resonates with the experience of these young people, who have to act, perform, and consciously play to a variety of specific audiences starting from the time they leave home. In addition to these performances, they also created a public artwork, the Embassy of the Refugee, in which they enact a performative agency, rather than seeking recognition from the US settler state. Although these migrant/refugee youth are for the most part excluded from having political agency within the process of applying for asylum, I argue that through their artwork they imagine other possibilities for themselves and for others outside the purview of state policies.
This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based op... more This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based oppositional practice, one that contests the sovereign power of the nation-state and the structural roots of multiple, intersecting oppressions. Like each contribution to this special issue, the introduction challenges readers to reconsider the meanings and possibilities of sanctuary movements across time and place. It raises contexts and themes that are investigated in the issue’s contributions on the struggles of migrant communities in a context of increasingly militarized borders, Indigenous practices of radical hospitality, GLBTQ spaces of refuge, policing reform efforts, and practices of civil disobedience. This introduction looks to both the history and the radical future of sanctuary.
During the first quarter of 1996, the mail order clothing company Lands' End circulated seve... more During the first quarter of 1996, the mail order clothing company Lands' End circulated several catalogs that highlight Peru as its source of cotton and use images of Peruvian workers to advertise its clothing. At the same time, the company's "bed and bath" subsidiary, Coming Home, ...
Ⅲ ABSTRACT: Th is article examines how Central American migrant/refugee youth imagine forms of sa... more Ⅲ ABSTRACT: Th is article examines how Central American migrant/refugee youth imagine forms of sanctuary through collaborative artwork as part of a series of Arte Urgente (Urgent Art) workshops led by artist Caleb Duarte. Th is artwork involved a critical embodiment and reenvisioning of their past and present experiences in the form of performance. In addition, their creation of a symbolic Embassy of the Refugee was an imaginative way of asserting their right to protection. Th is article examines how members of aff ected communities have made artistic interventions into public spaces to focus attention on the nation-state as a site of crisis as well as envision autonomous, noninstitutional sanctuary spaces for each other, while also engaging in ongoing practices of solidarity with other displaced people. Ⅲ
This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based op... more This editors’ introduction examines the genealogies of sanctuary as a space—and movement-based oppositional practice, one that contests the sovereign power of the nation-state and the structural roots of multiple, intersecting oppressions. Like each contribution to this special issue, the introduction challenges readers to reconsider the meanings and possibilities of sanctuary movements across time and place. It raises contexts and themes that are investigated in the issue’s contributions on the struggles of migrant communities in a context of increasingly militarized borders, Indigenous practices of radical hospitality, GLBTQ spaces of refuge, policing reform efforts, and practices of civil disobedience. This introduction looks to both the history and the radical future of sanctuary.
In “Radical Histories of Sanctuary,” contributors explore both contemporary and historical invoca... more In “Radical Histories of Sanctuary,” contributors explore both contemporary and historical invocations of “sanctuary,” paying particular attention to its genealogies in social movements against state violence. Expanding the scope of sanctuary, they address not only immigrant activism but also topics such as indigenous strategies of survival in the Americas, gay liberation in rural spaces, and urban housing for refugees.
The essays contest liberal conventions of sanctuary that shore up the very forms of power and subjugation they seek to dismantle: from immigrant movements affirming the distinction between “good” and “bad” immigrants to gay liberation movements for police reform that fail to address the fundamental violence of policing. Examining both the liberatory potential of sanctuary and its limits, the contributors argue for intersectional strategies of resistance that connect the struggles of disparate groups against repressive and violent power.
The Undocumented Everyday: Migrant Lives and the Politics of Visibility, UMN Press, 2018
As debates over immigration increasingly become flashpoints of political contention in the United... more As debates over immigration increasingly become flashpoints of political contention in the United States, a variety of advocacy groups, social service organizations, filmmakers, and artists have provided undocumented migrants with the tools and training to document their experiences.
In The Undocumented Everyday, Rebecca M. Schreiber examines the significance of self-representation by undocumented Mexican and Central American migrants, arguing that by centering their own subjectivity and presence through their use of documentary media, these migrants are effectively challenging intensified regimes of state surveillance and liberal strategies that emphasize visibility as a form of empowerment and inclusion. Schreiber explores documentation as both an aesthetic practice based on the visual conventions of social realism and a state-administered means of identification and control.
As Schreiber shows, by visualizing new ways of belonging not necessarily defined by citizenship, these migrants are remaking documentary media, combining formal visual strategies with those of amateur photography and performative elements to create a mixed-genre aesthetic. In doing so, they make political claims and create new forms of protection for migrant communities experiencing increased surveillance, detention, and deportation.
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Like each contribution to this special issue, the introduction challenges readers to reconsider the meanings and possibilities of sanctuary movements across time and place. It raises contexts and themes that are investigated in the issue’s contributions on the struggles of migrant communities in a context of increasingly militarized borders,
Indigenous practices of radical hospitality, GLBTQ spaces of refuge, policing reform efforts, and practices of civil disobedience. This introduction looks to both the history and the radical future of sanctuary.
The essays contest liberal conventions of sanctuary that shore up the very forms of power and subjugation they seek to dismantle: from immigrant movements affirming the distinction between “good” and “bad” immigrants to gay liberation movements for police reform that fail to address the fundamental violence of policing. Examining both the liberatory potential of sanctuary and its limits, the contributors argue for intersectional strategies of resistance that connect the struggles of disparate groups against repressive and violent power.
In The Undocumented Everyday, Rebecca M. Schreiber examines the significance of self-representation by undocumented Mexican and Central American migrants, arguing that by centering their own subjectivity and presence through their use of documentary media, these migrants are effectively challenging intensified regimes of state surveillance and liberal strategies that emphasize visibility as a form of empowerment and inclusion. Schreiber explores documentation as both an aesthetic practice based on the visual conventions of social realism and a state-administered means of identification and control.
As Schreiber shows, by visualizing new ways of belonging not necessarily defined by citizenship, these migrants are remaking documentary media, combining formal visual strategies with those of amateur photography and performative elements to create a mixed-genre aesthetic. In doing so, they make political claims and create new forms of protection for migrant communities experiencing increased surveillance, detention, and deportation.
Like each contribution to this special issue, the introduction challenges readers to reconsider the meanings and possibilities of sanctuary movements across time and place. It raises contexts and themes that are investigated in the issue’s contributions on the struggles of migrant communities in a context of increasingly militarized borders,
Indigenous practices of radical hospitality, GLBTQ spaces of refuge, policing reform efforts, and practices of civil disobedience. This introduction looks to both the history and the radical future of sanctuary.
The essays contest liberal conventions of sanctuary that shore up the very forms of power and subjugation they seek to dismantle: from immigrant movements affirming the distinction between “good” and “bad” immigrants to gay liberation movements for police reform that fail to address the fundamental violence of policing. Examining both the liberatory potential of sanctuary and its limits, the contributors argue for intersectional strategies of resistance that connect the struggles of disparate groups against repressive and violent power.
In The Undocumented Everyday, Rebecca M. Schreiber examines the significance of self-representation by undocumented Mexican and Central American migrants, arguing that by centering their own subjectivity and presence through their use of documentary media, these migrants are effectively challenging intensified regimes of state surveillance and liberal strategies that emphasize visibility as a form of empowerment and inclusion. Schreiber explores documentation as both an aesthetic practice based on the visual conventions of social realism and a state-administered means of identification and control.
As Schreiber shows, by visualizing new ways of belonging not necessarily defined by citizenship, these migrants are remaking documentary media, combining formal visual strategies with those of amateur photography and performative elements to create a mixed-genre aesthetic. In doing so, they make political claims and create new forms of protection for migrant communities experiencing increased surveillance, detention, and deportation.