4/27: Social Movements - Professor Irons

On Tuesday, we discussed social movements and the various ways that one can become involved with their community or other similar group to be an “activist.” We discussed what being an “activist” means and how working for social justice can often place you in difficult positions. Our class then tied in the readings, the first of which being The Costs and Risks of Social Activism: A Study of the Sanctuary Movement Activism by Gregory L. Wiltfang and Doug McAdam. In this piece, two issues were addressed: why social movements emerge, and why do certain individuals become involved with these movements? The answer in the study cited authors such as Rude, who examined the French Revolution, and the relation between “class and ideological allegiance” (Wiltfang, 988).

This area of study led us into our second piece of the day, The Ethnography of Transnational Social Activism: Understanding the Global as Local Practice, by Hilary Cunningham. Cunningham’s research in this study focused around the ideas of evolution and globalization and how they related to a global civil society and a transnational network. She then built upon these ideas to address and further develop research on social activism across borders, which tightly tied into the work that our class did with No More Deaths and our other experiential components.

A large portion of the class was spent discussing the many issues and topics that our class faced over the semester, and how we have learned more about the idea of “borderlands” as our class has proceeded forwards throughout the semester. Students were able to share their different experiences and how they related to the class, and furthermore, how they were able to connect their real-world experiences with what they learned in the classroom. However, the most significant portion of our class session was when we discussed where the ideas we had learned in the class would take us, whether this would be to continue The Borderlands class in the fall semester, lead additional No More Deaths trips (which several students have already volunteered to do) or continue the simple role of spreading the word. Regardless of where the class will head in the future, one point was painfully clear: the knowledge that we have learned in the borderlands class has caused us, as an entire class, to be more informed about the current issue of immigration along the U.S. / Mexican border at present, and more prepared to do something about this growing challenge.

-Peter M.

**Sorry this is so late!! Technical difficulties!!

**Thanks to Kate for lending me her login information so I can post this!!