"My Son Was Teaching Me How to Really Act in Solidarity: Latine/x Immigrants Organizing Intergenerationally through a Communal Pedagogy of Resistance"

Please join the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Social Science, Arts, and Humanities (CAMPSSAH) for a Research Colloquium featuring School of Education Professor Alicia Rusoja.

Thursday, April 6
3:10-4:30pm
Zoom only
Presentation followed by an informal discussion and Q&A

Abstract

Anti-immigrant legal violence and grassroots organizing against it have fundamentally shaped the lives of immigrant children and families in the US. This presentation showcases the pedagogical practices of Latine/x immigrants’ political mobilization, drawing on qualitative data from a larger yearlong practitioner inquiry study that involved observant participant field notes, artifacts, photographs, and in-depth interviews with 11 undocumented and documented Latinx immigrants with whom I, a Latina immigrant, shared an organizing practice between 2014 and 2016. This presentation will put forth the argument that Latine/x immigrants organize intergenerationally through their co-facilitation of a “communal pedagogy of resistance.” This is an intergenerational pedagogy enacted in communal spaces, such as homes, community organizations, and in the streets, that 1) conceptualizes our Latine/x immigrant community’s cultural, literacy, and linguistic practices as strengths and tools of resilience and resistance, and 2) expands our definition of family and our sense of interdependence to fellow oppressed communities, teaching us to enact inclusive justice. The presentation will discuss implications for educational research, policy and practice.

Download a calendar invite and Zoom link

Photo credit: Steve Pavey / Hope in Focus