Like this:

Helllllllloooooooooooooo! It’s me. Girl, from the north country. Can you see the change in my tone of voice? I’m writing to you from the other side of the tunnel. It looks, sounds, and feels very different over here and I LOVE it. The air feels cleaner and the landscape is breathtaking. It looks a little something like this:

The tunnel was long, but the light was bright, and I gained strength from friends who traveled before me and supported me along the way.

In March and April, I went to two campus interviews, visited my family for a few short days, presented my research findings to remarkable organizations and individuals in Fargo, and then I turned in my dissertation on May 14. All of these experiences were exhilarating and exhausting. But, I got a job! I defend my dissertation on June 4, teach a summer class at the University of Oregon for four weeks, pack and move, and then begin my new job as Assistant Professor of Anthropology in August. To summarize the last few months in that one simple sentence, I think, skirts the personal enormity of all that has happened. In the meantime, as I finished my dissertation and got a job, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, oil began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, Arizona legislators passed horrible bills that aim to rid the state of undocumented migrants, and countless other tragedies and triumphs occurred. I am SO EXCITED about the time that I will soon have to teach, research, and be an activist without this “thing” hanging over me. It’s quite impossible to ignore it. It is weight, physical, emotional, and intellectual. Like a long run, from the very moment that I handed it in, I left relieved, tired, and happy. After my defense, I will certainly have edits and changes to make to my dissertation, but the brunt of the work is done and for that I am thankful.

The conclusion of my dissertation begins with the following:

As I wrote this conclusion, Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed another anti-immigrant bill into law. HB 2281 bans schools from teaching classes in ethnic studies. One of the arguments against the growing field of ethnic studies in the U.S. contends that ethnic studies programs are biased towards minority groups, that they foster potentially revolutionary activities against a presumed fair and democratic state. This argument falsely assumes that most academic departments are not biased. This bill passed just 20 days after another controversial Arizona bill that aimed to identify, prosecute, and deport undocumented migrants. These Arizona laws serve to ethnically cleanse only certain noncitizens from its borders, namely undocumented Latino migrants. One of the countless arguments against undocumented migrants has to do with the lack of enough state support to go around, whether law enforcement, education, health care, or social services. Both Arizona bills have to do with citizenship and belonging. They beg the questions, “Who belongs to the country? Who is a ‘worthy’ citizen? And, who is allowed to decide the parameters of belonging?”
My dissertation answers some of these questions. While refugees are legal residents of the United States and therefore have significantly more rights than undocumented migrants, there are strong correlations between the experiences of refugees and immigrants because refugees are often treated as illegal when it comes to informal rights of citizenship, like respect and political clout. In addition to legal status, the credentials for “worthy” citizenship have to do with race, ethnicity, class, gender, and culture. The criteria for inclusion are always changing in order to adapt to the political economic context. Throughout the 1990s, refugee resettlement challenged mainstream notions of “good” citizenship in Fargo. As a result the criteria began to change and become more inclusive. Like Arizona, however, North Dakota has some work to do. We all do.

I have plenty of work to do in terms of publishing this dissertation, learning a new city and university, and getting ready for my defense. But I also took a few, much-needed days off and went to the beloved Oregon coast. I hiked away my stress (16 miles worth), read, slept, cooked, and began catching up on long overdue correspondence. Some highlights from that trip:

Now that I have more time, I hope to post more on what it means to be an activist anthropologist.

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