I am very pleased to share the latest update to the long-running (2 years and counting!) collaborative student research project that I oversee, creating historical background briefs designed to be used by volunteer attorneys and interpreters preparing detained asylum seekers for reasonable/credible fear screenings. Often even very experienced and knowledgeable attorneys don't have country conditions expertise that they may need for particular clients, and typically have only a few hours to work with them. These briefs, along with annotated suggestions for further reading for each one, are designed with this niche need in mind, but could be used in many other ways, too. This new update includes briefs on Mexico and Brazil, as well as Haitian migration through/from Brazil. Please feel free to share this resource as you see fit.
I am so proud of the work that so many students have done in their contributions to this site, and this is hopefully just the beginning of a larger, long-term teaching project to create opportunities for my students to apply what they learn about Latin American history in my classes to actively addressing urgent issues in the present.