On February 14th 2024, SIMI organized the webinar Communicating Migration: Resistance, Resilience, and Activism.
We share the welcoming speech of Fr. Aldo Skoda, director of SIMI, and recordings of the speakers’ speeches.
“Thank you for joining us.
Migration has indeed become a defining feature of the social, cultural, economic, political and religious life of a world increasingly characterized by the controversial forces of globalization as well as by ongoing conflicts and growing natural disasters. It is also a dominant theme in the media, which often stoke fears and divisions at the expense of the stories and lives of those involved. Indeed, we are witnessing a continuous public debate that uses migrants and refugees as tools to fuel division, conflict and sometimes even hatred.
At SIMI we study the phenomenon of human mobility in its multiple dimensions and today we want to focus on the important topic of migration and communication.
We have already addressed the issue of how the media narrate migration, however, today is an opportunity for us to learn more about it by looking at the other side of the mirror and try to understand how migrant people resist this narrative and create their own. To this end, we asked what does the experience of migration mean to those who have lived it? And what can new and digital media offer migrants in regard to self-representation?
To answer these questions, we have gathered scholars in the fields of human mobility, communication, media, and rhetorical studies who employ diverse research methods as well as best practice from the field. Among our experts the authors of the recent volume Migrant World Making, published by Michigan State University Press. This book offers myriad narratives, mosaics of experiences that paint a picture of what it is like for traveling, transnational peoples to make a home in other places by creating a network of communication tools and strategies to navigate tensions, contradictions, and range of emotions that characterize being transnational.
I want to thank all our speakers for taking the time to share their knowledge and expertise with us and I leave the floor to our moderator, Veronica De Sanctis, she will introduce our guest speakers.”
Mario Russell, Migration: Dignity and Human Rights
Mario Russell is executive Director of the Center for Migration Studies in New York. Mr. Russell has worked for over 20 years for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, having served during the past eight years as Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Division. Prior to that, Mr. Russell conducted litigation in the immigration and federal district and appeals courts and managed the asylum defense clinic at St. John’s Law School, where he also taught seminars on immigration law. Mr. Russell also previously worked as Regional Director for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), conducting national trainings for practitioners. He has consulted with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on asylum protection in Eastern Europe and has worked to advocate on behalf of newcomers as a board member of the New York Immigration Coalition and in other capacities. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law and Haverford College and served as a public interest fellow at Harvard Law School.
Michael Lechuga, Colonialism, Nationalism, Difference and Borders: Migrant World Making
Michael Lechuga is assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico. He researches and teaches Settler Colonial Studies, Cultural Studies, Rhetoric, and Migration Studies. He has twice been recognized with an Emerging Scholar Award, in 2021 by the Critical Cultural Studies Division at the National Communication Association and in 2022 by the International Communication and Media Studies Conference.
Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez, Relationship between digital media, popular culture, and identity making
Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Communication at Texas A&M International University. He studies the relationship between digital media, popular culture, and Latinx/e identity making. He earned his BA in Political Science from St. Edward’s University in 2012, his MA in Media Studies from the University of Texas in 2015, and his PhD in Communication from the American University in 2018.
Sergio Fernando Juárez, Online Activism and the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles
Sergio Fernando Juárez is assistant professor of Intercultural Communication at Loyola Marymount University. His areas of research include critical pedagogies within the field of communication and development of equitable educational practices within institutions to better value multiple forms of intelligence and knowledge. He holds the Activism and Social Justice Pedagogy Award from the National Communication Association.
Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, Migrants’ Being and Belonging beyond the Layers of Loss
Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager is associate professor in the Department of Communication at Colorado State University and a director of education abroad programs in Europe. She holds three International Communication Association Top Paper Awards and a CSU CLA Best Teacher Award. She researches and teaches Intercultural Communication, Conflict and Memory, Global Studies, and International Cinematography.
Pat Murphy, Church, migration and the role of faith-based Organisation
Pat Murphy, c.s. is currently in his 11 year as Director of the Casa del Migrant in Tijuana (a house for migrants and refugees). He was born in New York City in 1952. He did his seminary studies in New York, Chicago and Toronto. He graduated from Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois in 1974 with bachelor’s in Psychology and in 1979 completed his Masters in Divinity at the University of Toronto. He also received a Masters in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in Chicago in 1985.
Anthony J. Cernera, The importance of international networks to expand opportunities for education of migrants and refugees
Anthony J. Cernera is president and co-founder of Being the Blessing Foundation. He is also the co-founder and team leader of the Refugee and Migrant Education Network, an international network of universities and NGO’s collaborating to expand opportunities for education of refugees and about human mobility. Anthony also serves as the president of the Center for Interreligious Understanding and on the board of directors of the World Refugees School. He spent 35 years in higher education including senior administrative and teaching positions at Marist College as well as president of the International Federation of Catholic Universities from 2006 to 2012 after serving as vice president of the Federation from 2000—2006 and president of Sacred Heart University. He has served on numerous boards of directors of social justice, education and civic organizations. Anthony holds a Ph.D in theology from Fordham Universities and has written and edited books on the Second Vatican Council as well as interreligious dialogue.