assignment ideas?

Mark Schuller

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Oct 6, 2018, 2:54:48 PM10/6/18

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Hello all,

I hope you all are well. It's been a particularly jarring week.

I was wondering if folks have attempted an assignment where students interview someone they already know, ideally their family, about their migration experience. I'm teaching my Anthropology and Contemporary World Problems course and we're discussing migration. We're reading de Leon's book as the text.

A representative from Dream Action will be coming to talk about the issues relating to being undocumented. But I do *not* want students to interview DACA students for several reasons: safety, confidentiality, pimping the undocumented experience, etc.

The goal of the assignment is to have students gain empathy for individuals and communities currently being targeted, and also see the importance of sharing stories to humanize.

Any resources folks have would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Have a good weekend all,

Mark Schuller, Associate Professor
Anthropology and Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
msch...@niu.edu<mailto:msch...@niu.edu>

http://www.anthropolitics.org<http://www.anthropolitics.org/>
Twitter: @anthropolitiks<http://www.twitter.com/anthropolitiks>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/mark-schuller
http://potomitan.net/

winmail.dat

Heyman, Josiah M

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Oct 8, 2018, 11:27:40 AM10/8/18

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Interviewing legal immigrants that students know (maybe family members) is a good idea but might also bring out responses along the lines of “we did it the right way, why can’t they?” This is a good place to start in terms of understanding/replying to that question:

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/why-don%E2%80%99t-they-just-get-line

A longer path to an answer (but important) are understanding the changes in US immigration policy history.* I do not know a short & simple summary (does someone?) but this new, readable book can help: http://walterewing.com/2018/08/17/immigrant-experiences/ . The classic is Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects, a brilliant and articulate (but still demanding) book.

*For example, my grandfather was initially an unauthorized immigrant (jumped ship in New York harbor) but it was an era when it was easy for him to “adjust status” to legal immigrant. That is very hard to do now.

Joe

Josiah Heyman

Director, Center for Inter-American and Border Studies

Professor of Anthropology

University of Texas at El Paso

500 W. University, El Paso, TX 79968

1-915-747-8745

jmhe...@utep.edu

From: <hrsja...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mark Schuller <msch...@niu.edu>
Reply-To: "hrsja...@googlegroups.com" <hrsja...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, October 6, 2018 at 12:54 PM
To: "'hrsja...@googlegroups.com'" <hrsja...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: assignment ideas?

Hello all,

I hope you all are well. It’s been a particularly jarring week.

I was wondering if folks have attempted an assignment where students interview someone they already know, ideally their family, about their migration experience. I’m teaching my Anthropology and Contemporary World Problems course and we’re discussing migration. We’re reading de Leon’s book as the text.

A representative from Dream Action will be coming to talk about the issues relating to being undocumented. But I do *not* want students to interview DACA students for several reasons: safety, confidentiality, pimping the undocumented experience, etc.

The goal of the assignment is to have students gain empathy for individuals and communities currently being targeted, and also see the importance of sharing stories to humanize.

Any resources folks have would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Have a good weekend all,

Mark Schuller, Associate Professor

Anthropology and Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies

Northern Illinois University

DeKalb, IL 60115

msch...@niu.edu

http://www.anthropolitics.org

Twitter: @anthropolitiks

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/mark-schuller

http://potomitan.net/

Barbara Rose Johnston

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Oct 8, 2018, 1:28:32 PM10/8/18

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Dear Joe

Just a quick note of posting this brief and very useful response!

Barbara

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Aurolyn Luykx

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Oct 8, 2018, 11:04:53 PM10/8/18

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This book is essential for teaching about current immigration issues, IMO. Most of the lesson ideas were designed with K-12 students in mind, but I've adapted several of them for college undergrads over the years. For example, after reading Bill Bigelow's "Mexican American War Role Play", I did a similar thing with my students around the question of the border wall, where they came up with different characters representing different perspectives and then wrote from the p.o.v. of that character. One particularly powerful moment came from a student who asked me if he could do a dramatic monologue and perform it in front of the class... His piece focused on the inner conflict of a young man who's gotten a job with the Border Patrol, trying to justify that choice to his parents who entered the U.S. illegally (thus making his own path possible). That was like a decade ago but I'll never forget it.

Rethinking Schools is such a great resource on so many things...

The Line Between Us by Bill Bigelow | Paperback for Sale

Aurolyn Luykx

“We have to look at the civil rights movement like antibiotics; just because some of the symptoms of racism are clearing up, you don’t stop taking the medicine or the malady returns even stronger than before."
--Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Julie Maldonado

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Oct 9, 2018, 7:23:42 PM10/9/18

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Mark, I'm really appreciative that you posted this question. I have my students interview someone they know (friend or family member) about their experiences of migration or displacement, or they can choose to do a scenario about "your home is closed", tying it to David Vine's Island of Shame. If not too much trouble, would you mind compiling and sharing responses back with the group, as would be wonderful to have more resources on doing this. Thank you!

With love,

Julie