Date of Graduation

Spring 5-19-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Migration Studies

College/School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program

Migration Studies

First Advisor

Luis Enrique Bazán

Abstract

This field project incorporates the practice of fluid desire into the context of migration educational spaces within spaces such as the University of San Francisco Migration Studies Program (MIMS) and nonprofit organization Ayudando Latinos A Soñar (ALAS). Our research objective is to explore the importance of educational spaces for communities who are impacted by migration and how these spaces may allow these communities to be authentically themselves and embody fluid desire. We articulate fluid desire as a practice and state of being that encompasses complementary work from various scholars who focus on one or more components: (1) desire-centered; (2) advocacy and engagement; (3) intergenerational; (4) healing. Through the use of testimonios, the zine project is meant to encapsulate that MIMS and ALAS are spaces of community cultural wealth. The zine is a medium that allows participants to explore fluid desire while also telling stories, give family/ancestral knowledge and contribute to how they would like these spaces to grow and heal. Through this method, MIMS participants offer counter narratives to what traditional academic spaces should envision. Since there are only three specific graduate programs in the U.S. that offer some variation of Migration Studies (CUNY, DuPaul & USFCA) it's important to highlight how the MIMS program has the ability to produce scholarship and knowledge that challenges false narratives of the immigration system and creates alternatives that could center healing and human dignity. For ALAS participants, they provide counter narratives of the way nonprofits are seen as having less impact or wide reaching influence. When in reality, nonprofits are the ones doing most of the work and filling in where the government deeply lacks, especially in the immigration system. Overall, may this work act as a reminder to reject colonizing forces that block the ability for healing spaces to be fluid.

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