Back to Spotlight on LCJ

Language in migration/refugee resettlement/asylum seeking

August 2024: The Bridge as a Cultural Confluence: Interpreting Language and Justice in Kakuma Refugee Camp

This month’s Spotlight was prepared by Ifigeneia Gianne, an undergraduate student at Bard College who is majoring in Anthropology and Theater. As an international student from Greece, Ifigeneia is no stranger to issues of language and culture. As part of her studies, she has had the opportunity to closely analyze a recent film that introduces…
Edith Muleiro

University of Texas Austin, Texas, USA edithmuleiro@utexas.edu Read Edith’s April 2021 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. I recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a dual B.A. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Plan II Honors and a minor in Arabic. I have been working with migrant communities from the Middle East…
Lissie Wahl-Kleiser

Independent Researcher Medical Anthropologist and Nationally Certified Medical Interpreter Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health Social Medicine Boston, Massachusetts Elizabeth_Wahl@hms.harvard.edu Communicative justice is at the core of my research and practice as medical interpreter in the Greater Boston area. For the last 15 years I have observed, participated and struggled against the silencing of…
Laura Smith-Khan

Senior Lecturer School of Law University of New England Armidale, Australia Affiliated Member, the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Ghent University, Belgium Laura.Smith-Khan@une.edu.au Read Laura’s December 2021 and May 2020 Spotlights on Language, Culture and Justice. I am a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of New England, Australia. From 2019 to…
Maya Angela Smith

Associate Professor of French University of Washington Seattle, Washington USA mayaas@uw.edu Having received my PhD in romance languages and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, I investigate identity formations among marginalized groups in the African diaspora, particularly in the postcolonial francophone world. Much of my work has been focused on Senegal and its diaspora.…
Toni Shapiro-Phim

Associate Professor, Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts tonishapiro@brandeis.edu Read Toni’s April 2020 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. I’m a cultural anthropologist and dance ethnologist whose work has focused on the relationship between the arts and migration, violence (including war and genocide) and other oppressions. I have spent time with artists…
Shawna Shapiro

Associate Professor Middlebury College Middlebury, Vermont, USA sshapiro@middlebury.edu Read Shawna’s March 2022 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. I am an associate professor of writing and linguistics at Middlebury College. My research focuses on the transition to higher education for immigrant and refugee students, and on innovative approaches to teaching linguistically diverse groups of writers. Much of my work…
Vijay Ramjattan

Instructor International Foundation Program University of Toronto Toronto, Canada vijay.ramjattan@mail.utoronto.ca I recently received my PhD in adult education and community development, with a specialization in workplace learning and social change, from the University of Toronto. My research interests revolve around the intersection of language and race in the workplace. These interests particularly concern the everyday…
Anaïk Pian

Maître de conférences l’Université de Strasbourg (Laboratoire DynamE) Strasbourg, France pian@unistra.fr Je suis sociologue et mes recherches portent sur les migrations internationales, les frontières et l’interprétariat dans l’asile et dans le domaine de la santé. J’ai récemment mené un terrain ethnographique sur l’interprétariat à la Cour nationale du droit d’asile (article à paraître dans la…
Hillary Mellinger

Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice and Criminology Washington State University Pullman, Washington, USA hillary.mellinger@wsu.edu Read Hillary’s September 2022 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. I received my PhD in justice, law and criminology from American University in May 2020, and am currently an assistant professor at Washington State University. Prior to pursuing my PhD, I worked as a…
Aisha Maniar

Freelance Legal Translator and Activist United Kingdom maniara@hotmail.com I am a freelance legal translator with undergraduate degrees in modern languages (Arabic and French) and law and a postgraduate degree in translation. I have worked for international governmental and nongovernmental organizations as a translator. I have taught MA Translation Studies at a British university as a…
Marguerite Lukes

Director of Research and Innovation Internationals Network of Public Schools Affiliated Faculty, International Education and Development Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science and Humanities Steinhardt School of Education, Culture and Human Development New York University New York City marguerite.lukes@nyu.edu I am a researcher / practitioner with my academic roots in applied linguistics and education. My…
Mingyi Li

PhD student, Language and Literacies Education Fellow Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada mingyi.li@mail.utoronto.ca Read Mingyi’s November 2022 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. I am a first-year PhD student in the Language and Literacies Education program at OISE/UofT. During my MA degree at OISE, I explored how Western influence…
Laura Kunreuther

Associate Professor and Director of Anthropology Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, New York kunreuth@bard.edu Read Laura’s September 2021 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. My research and teaching center on themes such as sound, voice, translation/interpretation, technology and media, social suffering, affect, cultural memory, and urban public culture. My first book, “Voicing Subjects: Public Intimacy and Mediation in…
Alexandra Grey

Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Law Sydney, Australia alexandra.grey@uts.edu.au Read Alex’s July 2021 and May 2020 Spotlights on Language, Culture and Justice. I am a lecturer and researcher with a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Technology Sydney. I combine doctrinal law and ethnographic social sciences methods to examine how legal regimes work in…
Irene Gotera

Linguistic Justice® Founder Washington, D.C. ireneg@linguisticjustice.com I’m a social entrepreneur passionate about language, justice, and equality. Born in Venezuela, I’m a prospective Asylee in the U.S. and a TPS holder, as well as a former attorney with a master’s degree in Civil Procedural Law. Upon relocating to the U.S., I pursued my linguist training and national…
María Luz García

Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, Michigan mgarci21@emich.edu I take perspectives from linguistic and cultural anthropology to consider the ways that Ixil Mayas make use of the resources of their language in constructing and reflecting social realities. In my doctoral research, I considered the expression of historical memory of the…
Sara de Jong

Professor in Politics University of York United Kingdom sara.dejong@york.ac.uk Read Sara’s February 2020 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. I am a professor in the Department of Politics at the University of York. I have held (visiting) fellowships at the University of Vienna (EU FP7 Marie Curie Fellowship), University of Goettingen, the International Institute of Social…
Michelle Auzanneau

Full Professor Population and Development Center Convergences Migration Institute University of Paris Paris, France mch.auzanneau@gmail.com I am a sociolinguist whose work focuses on the variability of language practices in interaction with and in relation to global sociolinguistic dynamics (linked to urbanization, mobility, contacts, etc.). Whether in France or in Africa, I have worked on sociolinguistic…
September 2022: “Interpretation at the Asylum Office”

This month’s feature is contributed by LCJ Hub member Hillary Mellinger, an Assistant Professorof Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. Hillary’s research focuses on language access within the U.S. immigration and criminal justice systems, the challenges that asylum applicants and attorneys encounter at the U.S. Asylum Office, and the criminalization of migration. Prior…
May 2022: “Linguistic Refoulement: Exploring the Intersection Between Language and Asylum”

This month’s feature is a blogpost about the work of Language, Culture and Justice Hub member Katie Becker, who volunteers with Respond Crisis Translation. Becker recently graduated with a Master of Arts in Global Security and Borders from Queen’s University Belfast. Her master’s dissertation, (In)credible Fear: Linguistic Refoulement and Indigenous-Language Speakers at the U.S.-Mexico Border, was inspired by her work…
December 2020: “Language, Culture and Justice Hub celebrates inaugural event”

Thanks to the 120 persons who recently participated in Rights, Rules and Rhetoric: Exploring Language for and about Migrants in Australia, Europe and North America. This was the first public program sponsored by Brandeis University’s Language, Culture and Justice Hub, with conveners hailing from the three continents. Participants logged on from 19 countries across the globe, including several…
October 2020: “Call for Participation for ‘Rights, Rules and Rhetoric’”

The Language, Culture and Justice Hub invites you to participate in an asynchronous and written online “learning exchange” exploring diverse language challenges facing migrants as they navigate legal and other critical contexts, work in academic / professional settings, and respond to rhetoric that (mis)(re)presents them. Participation is simple: over the course of 17 and 18 November…
February 2020: “Afghan Interpreters Demand Rights, Not Favours”

Originally published Nov. 6, 2019, at the website Discover Society. This month’s feature comes from Hub member Sara de Jong, lecturer at the Department of Politics, University of York. She currently researches the claims to protection and rights by former Locally Engaged Civilians in Western military campaigns and their advocates. She provided written and oral evidence…
October 2019: ‘Exploring Interpretation as a Right in the Context of Migration’

The Trump administration recently decided that providing in-court interpretation during initial-phase immigration proceedings represents an unnecessary expense in an already bogged-down system. Migrants will be shown a film explaining legal procedures in a variety of languages but will not be able to ask questions and receive more information on the spot. According to the San Francisco…