Joint IAS Faculty Book Published
Reading news about migration in 2018 will, sooner or later, lead to stories in which such terms “border fences,” “sanctuary,” or “transit centers” and even “baby jails” appear. These expressions not only reflect the conflicts that mark our present, they also show that movements of people across natural, political, and cultural boundaries complicate the geographical space that individuals on the move cross, inhabit, and leave behind. As conflicts over identities and space continue to erupt on a regular basis, and while those from previous eras are far from resolved, our book Mapping Identity, Migration, and Space reads the relationship between migration, identity, and space from a fresh and innovative perspective.
Focusing on specific places, such as cities, neighborhoods, landscapes, or borders, the chapters in this book analyze multifaceted experiences and perceptions of migration. While each place has its unique and multi-layered history, what unifies the essays in our book is that in all of them a dynamic and complex relationship between migration and identity is visible and, indeed, mappable. The book’s authors include several members of the IAS faculty; our undergraduate research assistants collaborated with the editorial process. All, in all, Mapping Migration, Identity, and Space is the result of a multi-year long collaboration that showcases the work of the IAS community of scholars and students.
