August 11th - November 7th
Event:
Hostile Terrain 94
Type:
Art Exhibit
Location:
Mulvane Art Museum
Hostile Terrain 94 is a participatory art project sponsored and organized by the Undocumented Migration Project, a non-profit research-art-education-media-collective, directed by anthropologist Jason De León. The exhibition is composed of more than 4000 handwritten toe tags, one for each migrant who has died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona between the mid-1990s and 2020. The tags are geolocated on a wall map of the desert showing the exact locations where remains were found.
The toe tags here were filled out by a team of volunteers led by Jason Miller, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Washburn University.
Hostile Terrain 94 is made possible through generous contributions by the Washburn University Academic Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Center for Kansas Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Forensic Anthropology Recovery Unit, Sociology and Anthropology Department, and The Vice President of Academic Affairs Major Research Grant as well as Humanities Kansas and the Tonantzin Society.
August 27th
Event:
May Our Voices Ring True: A Virtual Evening with Huascar Medina
Type:
Facebook Live Event
Location:
Washburn University
May Our Voices Ring True: A Virtual Evening with Huascar Medina
Medina will read from his new collection, Un Mango Grows in Kansas, and use poetry to help us find our voices, share our words, and discover what truly connects us. May our voices ring true and may our truth have the grace of beauty.
Presented as part of Hostile Terrain 94 now on display at the Mulvane Art Museum.
Hostile Terrain 94 at Washburn University is made possible through generous contributions by the Washburn University Academic Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Center for Kansas Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Forensic Anthropology Recovery Unit, Mulvane Art Museum, Sociology and Anthropology Department, and The Vice President of Academic Affairs Major Research Grant as well as Humanities Kansas and the Tonantzin Society.
September 16th
Event:
Invisible Graves / Tumbas Invisibles
Type:
Online Event
Location:
Washburn University
This presentation will be in English and simultaneously translated into Spanish.
Kate Spradley discusses the plight of thousands of Mexican and Central American migrants that cross the United States border every year. The majority of migrants that die in Texas are buried in unmarked graves in remote cemeteries with no regard to identification efforts violating human rights of the dead and creating a humanitarian crisis. As a forensic anthropologist with extensive experience exhuming and identifying unidentified migrants, Dr. Spradley will discuss migrant deaths in Texas within the broader context of migration, human rights, and dignity and the forensic anthropological initiatives that provide answers to families searching for their loved ones.
Presented as part of Hostile Terrain 94 now on display at the Mulvane Art Museum.
Hostile Terrain 94 at Washburn University is made possible through generous contributions by the Washburn University Academic Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Center for Kansas Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Diversity and Inclusion, Forensic Anthropology Recovery Unit, Mulvane Art Museum, Sociology and Anthropology Department, and The Vice President of Academic Affairs Major Research Grant as well as Humanities Kansas and the Tonantzin Society.
2020 Events
October 1st
Event:
Free Virtual Film Screening of Latinos Beyond Reel and Discussion
Type:
Facebook Live
Location:
Washburn University
Free screening of Border South and Q and A with Director Raúl O. Pastrana and Producer and Anthropologist Jason De León.
Mexico now deports more immigrants than the United States. Border South melds ethnography and cinema-verité to explore the harsh environment and brutal journey of undocumented immigrants from Central America crossing through Mexico towards the United States.
September 24th
Event:
Virtual Border South Screening and Q and A
Type:
Online Event
Location:
Washburn University
Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and among the most diverse -- accounting for one-sixth of all Americans and tracing their origins to more than 20 countries. They are also a rising force in American politics. Yet across the American media landscape, from the broadcast airwaves to cable television and Hollywood film, the reality and richness of the Latino experience are virtually nowhere to be found. Join us for a screening of the film followed by a discussion with Graciela Berumen (Center for Student Success), Marisa Gonzales (Sociology), Dr. Jason Miller (Anthropology), and Christina Valdivia-Alcala (Tonantzin Society).
Presented as part of Hostile Terrain 94 now on display at the Mulvane Art Museum and Hispanic Heritage Month.
Hostile Terrain 94 at Washburn University is made possible through generous contributions by the Washburn University Academic Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Center for Kansas Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Diversity and Inclusion, Forensic Anthropology Recovery Unit, Mulvane Art Museum, Sociology and Anthropology Department, and The Vice President of Academic Affairs Major Research Grant as well as Humanities Kansas and the Tonantzin Society.
October 16th
Event:
Hostile Terrain 94: Looking to our Ancestors
Type:
Online Event
Location:
Washburn University
Washburn University, Tonantzin Society and the Mulvane Art Museum continue their collaboration and bring to you, The Condor & The Eagle. To understand the treacherous journey migrants make, we must delve deeper into the problems migrants face in their native lands. Global climate injustice creates uninhabitable or very hostile regions, forcing thousands to make the perilous journey to the United States. Deaths from border crossing have surpassed 4,000 since 1994.
By featuring an indigenous perspective with a focus on our planet, we hope to amplify the dangers of climate change and how all exacerbate the migration/asylum crisis throughout the Americas. We seek solutions and ideas that can propel our call for human rights and environmental justice forward Our Mother Earth, and we as her children, are increasingly vulnerable.
Panelists names:
Casey Camp-HorinekFilm Protagonist. Hereditary Drumkeeper of the Women's Scalp Dance Society of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma. Because of Camp Horinek’s work, the Ponca Nation is the first Tribe in the State of Oklahoma to adopt the Rights of Nature Statute and to pass a moratorium on Fracking on Tribal Lands.
Bryan ParrasFilm Protagonist - Xicano Houston, TX - Healthy Communities Organizer with Sierra Club and Co-Founder of t.e.j.a.s. Parras is a longtime environmental justice advocate based in Houston, TX.
Yudith NietoFilm Protagonist. Nieto is a Mexican-American artist, organizer, language justice worker originally based in Houston, Texas, where she advocated for the fenceline community of Manchester in collaboration with Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s)
Fernanda PreciadoPanel Moderator. Preciado is a Xicana that makes her home in and outside the United States. She is the Culturally Relevant Pedagogy intern for Tonantzin Society. Her work focuses on social justice for BIPOC through the academic, cultural, and political lens.