Media+Migration Ecologies in 2025 At the M2lab, our aim is to serve as an archive, research guide, and research hub for those who wish to identify, describe, and track the verbal, visual, aural, and digital forms through which we make sense of migration as human practice. At this socio-political moment in the United States, this …
“A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge. A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary.” (25) – Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza Echoes from the Borderlands is an exceedingly relevant and poignant exploration of the U.S./Mexico Border that …
Portrait of Catlett with Glasses, ca. 1955-65, Bernice Kolko The Brooklyn Museum, in partnership with the National Gallery of Art, showcased the work and life of artist and activist Elizabeth Catlett in “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies: Elizabeth Catlett / Una artista negra revolucionaria con todo lo que ello implica: Elizabeth …
From the Archives . . . W. G. Sebald, The Emigrants by Sumita S. Chakravarty “Again and again, from front to back and from back to front, I leafed through the album that afternoon, and since then I have returned to it time and again, because, looking at the pictures in it, it truly …
From the Archives . . . Giuliana Bruno, Atlas of Emotion by Sumita S. Chakravarty In her 2002 book, Atlas of Emotion, noted visual and environmental studies scholar Giuliana Bruno uses the metaphor as well as the method of journey and mobility to rethink our relationship to cinema and other media. Advancing a wealth, …
2024-2025 Theme: Ecology The Media + Migration Lab constantly works to refine our social and political understanding of migration, which involves maintaining unwavering attention to the continued global conflicts that force the migration of millions of people around the world. The conflict in Gaza, and now Lebanon, is in its fourteenth month, and the genocide …
Alex Rivera provides a poignant commentary on labor, ecology, racial capitalism, and imperial infrastructure in his futuristic, science fiction film Sleep Dealer. The film is set in a dystopian future of North America where Mexican water rights are in the control of multinational corporations and the border between the United States and Mexico is completely …
Directed and produced by Jumana Manna, Foragers incorporates documentary, fiction, and archival footage to display the impact of Zionist migration to, and occupation of, Palestine. The film centers around Palestinians who risk heavy fines and imprisonment for violating Israeli foraging restrictions, and connects these stories to broader themes of alienation, community, and political economy. Both …
