I attended the “Migrant Rights within Empire, Art, Activism, and Democracy” on November 18, 2020, hosted by the Global Arts and Humanities Society of Fellows.
I enjoyed this discourse because the topics discussed relate directly to the major, I recently declared at OSU. I came to OSU in the Exploration program, and I declared my major in Sociology with a minor in Political Science, Human Rights, and Spanish. Attending this webinar was perfect for me because although I’m unsure of my career, I know I want to work in the field of human rights, specifically around the topic of immigration. This webinar was helpful because I now have access to the contacts of three professors at OSU (all of them in either the sociology or political science department), and I can come to them as a resource. I learned more about the Immigration Enforcement Regime, which was led by Professor Ines Valdez, and she talked about policed migration and the illegalization of Mexican and Central American workers in the US. She also discussed immigration flow and enforcement, and how things began to change after 9/11. Mass detention and deportation were two topics talked about heavily, both of which I benefitted from hearing about since this is the direction I want to go in (preferably) for my major. I also heard Prof. Victor Espinosa, who works in the department of sociology, discuss “a world without borders”. His discourse was extremely helpful in understanding this possible direction in my major, and I will definitely be reaching out to him in the future.
This topic relates to IA because immigration is an international issue – the issue of immigration, mass detention, and deportation is widely debated in the United States, and our relationships with other countries influence a lot of the policies that the US has on these topics. A world without borders is a world we need to strive to achieve.