Alternative Spring Break
Guanajuato, Mexico
INTS 390 Course
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INTS 390: Latin American migrant perspectives:
Ethnography and action
Monday and Wednesday, 6-7:15 p.m.
This interdisciplinary class combines anthropological fieldwork, migration theory, and service-learning in a course that examines Latin American immigrant perspectives. Students will research and work with immigrants in receiving communities in North Carolina and spend spring break in immigrants’ home communities in Guanajuato, Mexico.
The course will address ethical and practical aspects of the ethnographic method including the preparation, transaction and transcription of interviews. Using these skills outside the classroom, students will choose an issue related to immigration and conduct in-depth interviews with community members that include immigrants, policy-makers, healthcare professionals, religious leaders, educators, and local business owners in North Carolina. From these interviews students will gain an understanding of the impact of migration on the community and how newcomers adapt to a new place. In Mexico, students will be required to keep a daily journal and encouraged to enhance their interviews with documentary tools such as audio recording equipment and cameras. At the end of the class, students will give public presentations of their research.
This course is designed for upper level students in social science disciplines and is also open to graduate students. Knowledge of Spanish through level II or another foreign language is highly recommended but not required. Students must be prepared to work with others and travel to Carrboro periodically to conduct interviews. It is highly encouraged for students to already be working with immigrants through a campus or community organization. Tape recorders are required. Above all, students must be motivated by a strong desire to better understand issues facing the local immigrant community at home and abroad.
Instructor: Hannah Gill, hgill@email.unc.edu
To obtain contact information for the current GSL Chair, please refer to the APPLES' Organizers directory.
