Accompaniment with Im/migrant Communities

Engaged Ethnography

Kristin Elizabeth Yarris (Editor), Whitney L. Duncan (Editor)
Paperback ($27.00), Hardcover ($27.00), Ebook ($35.00) Buy

This collection brings together the experiences and voices of anthropologists whose engaged work with im/migrant communities pushes the boundaries of ethnography toward a feminist, care-based, decolonial mode of ethnographic engagement called “accompaniment.”

Accompaniment as anthropological research and praxis troubles the boundaries of researcher-participant, scholar-activist, and academic-community to explicitly address issues of power, inequality, and the broader social purpose of the work. More than two dozen contributors show how accompaniment is not merely a mode of knowledge production but an ethical commitment that calls researchers to action in solidarity with those whose lives we seek to understand. The volume stands as a collective conversation about possibilities for caring and decolonial forms of ethnographic engagement with im/migrant communities.

This volume is ideal for scholars, students, immigrant activists, instructors, and those interested in social justice work.

Contributors
Carolina Alonso Bejarano
Anna Aziza Grewe
Alaska Burdette
Whitney L. Duncan
Carlos Escalante Villagran
Christina M. Getrich
Tobin Hansen
Lauren Heidbrink
Dan Heiman
Josiah Heyman
Sarah Horton
Nolan Kline
Alana M. W. LeBrón
Lupe López
William D. Lopez
Aida López Huinil
Mirian A. Mijangos García
Nicole L. Novak
Mariela Nuñez-Janes
Ana Ortez-Rivera
Juan Edwin Pacay Mendoza
Salvador Brandon Pacay Mendoza
María Engracia Robles Robles
Delmis Umanzor
Erika Vargas Reyes
Kristin E. Yarris

 

 

 

 

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Contents
Introduction: Accompaniment as Anthropological Praxis. Kristin E. Yarris & Whitney L. Duncan
Part I: Accompaniment with Students, Youth, and Families
Chapter 1. “We’ve Been There Alongside Each Other Right from the Beginning”: Accompaniment as Multivalent and Evolving Practice for the DACA-mented DREAM Team.
Christina M. Getrich, Alaska Burdette, Ana Ortez-Rivera & Delmis Umanzor
Chapter 2. Acompañamiento as a Critical Pedagogy in Action.
Mariela Nuñez-Janes & Dan Heiman

Part II: Pragmatic Solidarity: Accompaniment in Binational, Bureaucratic, and Activist Spaces
Chapter 3. Mercados Dignos: Intergenerational accompaniment among Indigenous collectives in Guatemala.
Carlos Escalante Villagrán, Anna Grewe, Aída Lopez, Juan Pacay Mendoza, Salvador Pacay Mendoza & Lauren Heidbrink
Chapter 4. ‘Being With,’ ‘Doing For,’ and ‘Doing With’: An ‘Accompaniment’ Approach to Applied Research.
Sarah B. Horton
Chapter 5. Accompaniment in Activist Spaces: Solidarity at Ethnography’s Edges With an Immigrant Bond Fund.
Kristin Elizabeth Yarris

Part III. Methodologies of Accompaniment: Solidarity, Affect, and Companionship
Chapter 6. A Public Health of Accompaniment.
William D. Lopez, Nolan Kline, Nicole L. Novak & Alana M.W. Lebrón 
Chapter 7. Accompaniment and Testimonio: Migration Narratives in and Beyond the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.
Tobin Hansen & María Engracia Robles Robles
Chapter 8. convivencia: Storytelling as Accompaniment, Activism, and Care.
Erika Vargas Reyes, Lupe López & Whitney L. Duncan

Part IV. Concluding Reflections: Accompaniment & Caring Anthropology
Chapter 9. Commentary: Accompaniment as Moral and Political Practice.
Josiah Heyman

Epilogue: Multiple Approaches, Shared Aims: Accompaniment as Caring Ethnographic Praxis.
Kristin E. Yarris & Whitney L. Duncan

“This cutting-edge volume brings together some of the most well-respected migration scholars who, through their critical and reflexive ethnographic engagements and writing, demonstrate the possibilities of anthropological practice as truly collaborative and politically engaged. The volume’s unifying theme of accompaniment take us to multiple sites and spaces where we may reimagine our roles as scholar-activists and contribute to meaningful and material change and justice for the communities we work alongside.”—Wendy Vogt, author of Lives in Transit: Violence and Intimacy on the Migrant Journey

“Adapting the methodology of acompañamiento (accompaniment) from the social commitment of liberal theologians, editors Yarris and Duncan and their many collaborators offer an applied, engaged, and activist ethnography that stands in unabashed solidarity with the most vulnerable of border crossers.”—CHOICE Connect

 

 

Accompaniment with Im/migrant Communities
216 Pages 6 x 9
Published: July 2024Paperback ISBN: 9780816553433
Published: July 2024Hardcover ISBN: 9780816553440
Published: July 2024Ebook ISBN: 9780816553457

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