Annual Monash Arts European Languages Lecture - Deserving Immigrants: Central American Migration Narratives and Liberal Subject-Making

You’re invited to the Annual Monash Arts European Languages Lecture featuring  Professor Sujatha Fernandes from the University of Sydney 

Hosted by the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics, this enlightening lecture explores narratives of Central American migration to the United States

Welcome drinks will be served on arrival and please join us for networking and canapes after the lecture 

Abstract 
This lecture will explore narratives of Central American migration to the United States to probe the forms of subjection inherent in western liberalism. The talk focuses on several flows of migrants from Central America: asylum applicants in the 1990s, undocumented students or Dreamers in the 2000s, and contemporary indigenous migrants coming across the southern US border. I examine how prototypes of deserving and undeserving immigrants draw a class distinction between those upwardly mobile subjects whose stories can humanize them and the anonymous undocumented laborers who come to fill the ranks of an informal, exploited labor force. I draw on a range of materials including US congressional hearings, the novel American Dirt, and long-form media reportage. In this moment it is essential to move beyond binary formulations of migrants in order to develop a deeper understanding of the structures of US imperial power that underlie the migration crisis.

Bio  
Sujatha Fernandes is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney. Her work explores social and labor movements, participatory media and art, migrant workers, and climate storytelling. She is the author of five books, including Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling. Her writing has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, The Nation, Orion Magazine, and elsewhere. She currently holds a Discovery Project grant from the Australia Research Council to do research on indigenous migrant workers to New York City, Sydney, and other global cities.