I am thrilled to finally be able to share the finished product of two semesters of collaborative student research that I had the privilege to supervise.
After my experience as a volunteer interpreter for the Dilley Pro Bono Project last fall, I proposed to their staff that my students and I could create a website comprised of background briefs on Central America’s recent history that would support the work of the volunteer attorneys that represent Central American asylum seekers in detention.
Many of my students volunteered to be involved and to write briefs as part of their final research project in my History of Drugs class in the fall of 2018. This semester (spring 2019), two of my students continued working on the site as independent studies with me. Emma Lightizer researched and wrote numerous new historical briefs, and David Smith edited, curated and compiled all of the other students’ work, in addition to his own research and writing contributions. He also designed and created the site itself.
You can read more about David’ work on the site here: https://www.uvm.edu/cas/news/original-student-research-foundation-new-website-immigration-attorneys
In using and navigating the site, readers will benefit immensely from the large amount of work David did cross referencing and tagging articles to maximize its accessibility of information. In most cases, briefs include not just cited sources, but also annotated lists for further, related reading. We very purposefully made sure that none of these linked outside resources are behind paywalls, again with the intention of maximizing accessibility to all readers.
I could not be more proud of all of my students for the work that they have done on this, and particularly of David for his careful, thoughtful and dedicated work putting all of the pieces together and making this site a reality.
Please use and share this site as you see fit.
https://blog.uvm.edu/sosten-centralamerica/
End family detention. End all migrant detention.