Latin American historian, Barnard/Columbia. Childhood, gender, reproduction, law. Book on the history of paternity testing. Pithy self-description not my forte.
Statement of the Barnard-Columbia chapters of the AAUP regarding the mass arrest of peacefully protesting students: “We have lost confidence in our president and administration, and we pledge to reclaim our university.”
Joint statement by the Barnard-Columbia chapters of the AAUP regarding the mass suspension of students. Currently at least 100 students have been suspended, with more apparently in process.
Since you ask: many, many faculty have been working nonstop since the Shafik hearing and the first police raid two weeks ago. We’ve written open letters picked up in the natl/intl media, met students being released from jail, organized legal assistance for arrested students…
Lessons from the dirty wars: Argentina formed a national DNA database to reunite children the military government had forcibly removed from their mothers. And here’s an idea: they also criminally prosecuted dozens of officials, of all ranks, who participated in the removals.
Did anyone else yell out loud when they read this? In this interview about life on the frontlines with an anesthesiologist in NYC, the doctor, Erick Arbenz, casually reveals he is Jacobo’s grandson! In today‘s
@NYTimes
It’s 19 degrees & snowing in Dilley, Texas, home to the country’s largest ICE prison. I wonder what the children—some of whom have been there more than 500 days—think of the snow. I wonder too what
@POTUS
is waiting for.
#FreeThemAll
& abolish for-profit prisons
@ProyectoDilley
In a devastating moment, U.S. repro rights supporters can take heart from the lessons and example of Latin American activists, who have long battled powerful anti-abortion headwinds—and have begun to win
@nayluxx
@ILASColumbia
…housed them, served as psych support, appeared in the media trying to counter false narratives, screamed into the wind, organized rallies, met with administrators, organized a successful no confidence vote without so much as an email list of all faculty at our disposal…
…served for days at the encampment helping to deescalate conflict and field media, organized phone trees and rushed to campus during two police raids, screamed into the wind some more…
Guatemalan Child Refugees, Then and Now by
@rachelbnolan
explores a forgotten earlier wave of young refugees, who fled the civil war in the 80s. It’s the third piece in the
@NACLA
series Children and Migration Across the Americas
Isabella Cosse, Valentina Glockner and I introduce a special dossier, Exiliados, Refugiados, Desplazados: Children and Migration Across the Americas exploring children and migration past and present, around the hemisphere
The ruling treats domestic violence as private violence; those who suffer from it are “victim[s] of a particular abuser in highly individualized circumstances” and therefore do not merit asylum. This denies dv’s social dimensions and the ways states collude in its perpetration.
Incredibly proud of my
@BarnardCollege
@Columbia
students & the work they did this week in
#babyjail
—an ICE detention center in south Texas—helping ensure the rights of asylum-seeking women and their kids.
¡Felicitaciones, doctora
@IvonPadillaR
!! Congrats on your fascinating and original diss, Undocumented Youth: The Labor, Education, and Rights of Migrant Children in Twentieth Century America.
#histchild
& immigration peeps, take note! 👁
Catastrophic ruling by Sessions on domestic violence and gang violence just announced. These are the asylum grounds for most Central Americans. If this stands it will cause mass deportations of people to their deaths. A barbaric new front in this admin’s war on women.
My office is in this building, and I come and go at all hours. For the record, since the building opened in September, I have never once been asked for an ID. In fact, before this incident I didn’t even know they checked IDs. This is appalling.
This happened yesterday at Barnard College. A black Columbia University student was entering the library when he was racially profiled by public safety officers. They took his ID. They pinned him down.
🎥: Caroline Cutlip
Karen Alfaro on Chilean children taken from families and adopted transnationally during the Pinochet dictatorship. This is the fourth piece in the
@nacla
series Children & Migration Across the Americas: Children who Come from Afar
Seriously,
@washingtonpost
? A center that “houses families”? A “temporary home for immigrant women and children”? Facilities
that detain migrants are not shelters; they are prisons. We are not the rescuers; we are the persecutors.
The most powerful and enduring truths genetic testing reveals are not about biology but about society: a sneak preview from my book, Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father, out next week!
@sciam
@Harvard_Press
#Genealogy
#Genetics
#DNA
TFW a book reviewer gets—really GETS—exactly what you were trying to do. Thanks,
@TheTLS
“Breathtaking… As superb as Milanich is on this analytic front, she is also a master of the tantalizing detail and delayed revelation”
Thanks to the many colleagues who have posted instructions about how to use Zoom, tips on remote learning etc. Having completed my first remote class today, I’d like to contribute to the conversation. Attached is a deluxe, printable door sign for your use. Good luck, all!
And let’s remember why DACA exists in the first place: because of young activists’ tireless work. It may be imperfect, it may be limited in scope, but DACA was and remains a huge victory. And an important reminder to the BLM naysayers: protest works
I recently returned from an ICE detention facility housing mothers & children claiming asylum. Their claims are overwhelmingly based on domestic and gang-related violence. These are people literally fleeing for their lives. And so this ruling literally sends them to their deaths.
While scientific research produced paternity testing, the media invented something even more potent: paternity testing as a cultural phenomenon. My take on the role of the press in promoting genetic science over the last century:
#genealogy
#DNA
#genetics
Our workshop series explores the applied academic projects supported by
@cemeca_columbia
. Join us for the first event with the Buscadoras Research Unit
@moniquitri
, Greg Odum, &
@elotroalex
.
🗓 Monday Nov. 29th, 6 PM EST.
🔗:
History will indeed judge the perpetrators of migrant family separation. History also suggests what policies of redress after this catastrophe might look like. What happened after other episodes of state-sponsored child removal over the past century serve us as a guide. /1
Glad debate focused on the separated families in our litigation. The children, some babies, were taken from PARENTS and now we can’t find hundreds of them. We HAVE to find them. Worst practice I’ve seen in 30 years at
#ACLU
. History will judge.
I got to talk with Public Intellectual podcast about my book, the long history of the Paternity Reveal, and the apparent ubiquity of genetic secrets in the age of commercial DNA (or what
@CrispinPodcast
memorably calls 23,000 and Me)
Latinoamericanistas! Expert witness work is critical to asylum cases. It not only helps individual asylum seekers but serves to educate the judges who make these life & death decisions. Sign this petition to create an Expert Witness Section of
@LASACONGRESS
.
Yea, you will never feel the same about tortillas again. Or corn syrup. This book makes you think about how we are all caught up in complex and invisible food systems. And as a love letter to Mexican food, it also makes you hungry!
@alyshiagalvez
It’s time for
@Columbia
to cancel its contract with
@CBP
. Institutions have a responsibility to recognize state-sponsored xenophobia and abuse for what it is, not treat it as business as usual.
NYC-area educators! We're joining the
@womensmarch
on Saturday to protest this administration's attacks on education, science, truth, & the university. Don your academic regalia if you have it, & meet us @ 72nd & Broadway @ 11am this Saturday
Congratulations to scholar-activist
@premillanadasen
, winner of the inaugural Ann Snitow Prize. Her conversation with friend, colleague and comrade
@BarbaraRansby
was one of the more intimate and inspiring exchanges I’ve seen these many months on zoom.
Thanks,
@rachelgnew
and
@NewBooksLatAm
for giving me the opportunity to speak about my transatlantic history of paternity and the role of Latin America in it
Ha salido Infancia y migración en las Américas: Una serie especial en
@NACLA
: Gracias a
@ILASColumbia
y a la talentosa
@carolaperezc
por la oportunidad de compartir este dossier en español!
Fantastic news!!! Immigrant rights activist Marco Saavedra, whose family owns La Morada restaurant, has been granted asylum! Lovers of justice and tlacoyos rejoice!
I had the opportunity to work with twenty smart and passionate students on applied research on
#COVID19
conditions in Central America. Their research supports the critical work of
@supportKIND
on behalf of young asylum seekers. Thanks,
@ILASColumbia
for your generous support!
We're happy to share with you the inspiring research projects we support. 🙌📚
@BreannaComunale
, a History student at
@CC_Columbia
, does research on
#asylum
seekers in the US and is looking into how
#COVID19
exacerbated state and gender-based violence for these individuals.
A friend is a nurse in NYC. He reports low morale and coworkers on respirators. Please ask your kids to draw or write notes to healthcare workers! Scan and send to lettersforhealers
@gmail
.com We'll figure out the safest way to get these to staff!
I’ve taught at Barnard for 15 years & lived 3 blocks from the scene of this horrific incident for a decade. It’s a surreal and distressing experience to watch your community become a generic media narrative of calamity and suffering. via
@NYTimes
Me alegro que se festejan las fiestas patrias chilenas en el parque Morningside entre la universidad de Columbia y el barrio de Harlem, NYC, como todos los años. Pero oye, dónde están las mascarillas?? Es una falta de respeto por un barrio que tanto sufrió en esta pandemia
@SchlotterbeckMe
@History_UCDavis
Addendum for
@History_UCDavis
students: I’m sitting here writing a follow-up memo for a CA congressman who saw this op ed and wants to use historical data to counter the heinous new policy to separate families announced last week. History, including children’s history, matters!
A year ago this week I gave this keynote at
@shcyhome
about refugees, migration, & the politics of childhood. Beginning with a description of border baby jails, I explored why children are so central to both xenophobic politics and immigration activism.
Apropos the latest developments re children at the border, here's my
@shcyhome
lecture about childhood as a touchstone of immigration & refugee issues: "Innocents Abroad: Borders, Citizenship, & What Children's Historians Can Tell Us About the World Today"
Also important to note that the last ten days are the culmination of a whole year of crisis, with concerted attacks on academic freedom and the right to protest and expression. And it’s not just faculty: students and staff have been just as engaged.
Kids, priests, millenials, citizens all, out in protest here in NYC.
#CloseTheCamps
... Or as one sign poetically puts it, Get the Kids Out of the Fucking Cages
Historians/anthropologists of childhood! US Customs & Border Protection has helpfully provided you with a question for your final exam: “Observe the following images and discuss in light of the themes explored in this course.”
#histchild
@histchild
@shcyhome
Acting Comm. Sanders: The men & women of CBP meet this challenge every day and do their very best to cope with a worsening emergency. They care for these vulnerable children & families as if they were their own—changing diapers, mixing formula & comforting those in our custody.
Yesterday I defended my dissertation! It was a great conversation with my committee/Dream Team: Mae Ngai,
@ppiccato
,
@NaraMilanich
, Caterina Pizzigoni, &
@ariadna_acevedo
(who kindly joined us via Skype). Excited to keep working on this project and to move forward to new ones! 😊
Faculty in PA, FL, OH, WI, MI: do you want to receive voting instructions for your students, customized for your campus/locality? These one-pagers are non-partisan, can be shared in class or via social media. Here’s a sample for UFla. DM me to request one for your campus!
Congratulations,
@elizabeths1101
! Thrilled to see this fantastic book out in the world. Historians of Cuba, dance, cultural politics, and the Cold War: take note!
Write like the ghosts of all the women in history who weren't allowed to write are standing next to you wondering what a laptop is and why you're still in your pajamas.
El nuevo macartismo: el Congreso de EE.UU. cuestiona a la rectora de la Universidad de Columbia en medio de la represión al movimiento pro-Palestina via
@democracynowes
>300 Columbia faculty, students, alums, & others have called on the University to cancel a medical contract with Customs & Border Protection. While it's imperative to provide medical help to migrants, it's impossible to do so under the aegis of a lawless & abusive agency like CBP
@RogueChieftan
Here’s another thing: faculty themselves, even tenured ones, still have to ask for letters from those further up the food chain! When I write letters for my students or younger colleagues, it’s paying forward all those who have written (and continue to write) for me.
@PanchoEstrada
Esperemos que sí! Tengo todo el manuscrito traducido y listo, para quien lo quiera publicar! Me topé con varios obstáculos (editoriales que dijeron que sí y luego que no) pero al final la culpa es mía porque le necesito dedicar al asunto el tiempo que requiere.
“We always want better for children but we don’t dare to want better for the women who birth them”: my student Isabella Oliva writes about her experience counseling detained migrant women about their right to an abortion
@BarnardCollege
I am picturing the future diplomatic historian who, sifting through another mind-numbing box in the archives, suddenly comes across a press release with shithole in the title
This is precisely how new DNA testing at the border will be used: to generate isolated instances of negative test results to declare all parents “child traffickers.” Journalists, beware.
This article picked up by
@USAtoday
cites literally ONE example, of this happening to draw a conclusion + paint it as an epidemic. Another example of the misinformation campaign being waged against immigrants. So important to read beyond the headlines
Whatever happens, huge shout out to the grassroots activists who have worked so damn hard. Anything good that happens in this country is thanks to those thousands of doors you knocked. Grateful.
Hear that? It’s the sound of champagne corks as
@CoreCivic
and
@GEOnewsroom
, the private prison contractors that run family detention centers, celebrate their great good fortune. It seems the GOP is proposing to replace baby cages with more baby jails
@nytimes
3/ It appears that the GOP “solution” to family crisis would quadruple down on family detention. Ron Johnson told the
@nytimes
“We would probably need to build more, identify more detention facilities, certify them so we can keep the families together.”