Event

Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law The Flight and the Plight of People Deemed 'Illegal'

Monday, December 14, 2015 18:00to19:30
Chancellor Day Hall NCDH 316, 3644 rue Peel, Montreal, QC, H3A 1W9, CA

Join us for an Oppenheimer Chair talk with Professor Robert F. Barsky (Vanderbilt).

This talk, inspired by Professor Barsky's latest book, Undocumented Immigrants in an Age of Arbitrary Law: The Flight and Plight of People Deemed ‘Illegal’. (Oxon: Routledge, 2015) will describe the experiences of undocumented migrants, all around the world, bringing to life the challenges they face from the moment they consider leaving their country of origin, until the time they are deported back to it.

Drawing on a broad array of academic studies, including law, interpretation and translation studies, border studies, human rights, communication, critical discourse analysis and sociology, Robert Barsky argues that the arrays of actions that are taken against undocumented migrants are often arbitrary, and exercised by an array of officials who can and do exercise considerable discretion, both positive and negative.

Robert F. Barsky is a Professor at Vanderbilt University. He has published widely in areas relating to language theory, Convention refugee adjudication, and border studies, and he is the author of a trilogy of books about the milieus of Noam Chomsky and Zellig Harris.

Kindly RSVP to oppenheimer [at] mcgill [dot] ca

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