Abstract
Shedding light on the history of refugees is a challenging task. It entails motivating the population to “know the other” and perhaps more importantly “know about the other.” This includes understanding their history, motives, fears and the problems that confront them daily. These problems extend beyond geographical borders to impact identity as well. Thus, the immigrant is left to remap both physical and mental space to establish themselves in a new territory. Consequently, many immigrant experiences go untold or ignored even at the college level. Recognizing the importance of these experiences and the stories that encompass them, we created a testimonial based theatre to showcase emerging discourse that challenges anti-immigrant paradigms. In this way we hope to make the story about the other known. The collaboration between California State University, San Bernardino and University of North Caroline at Pembroke, allows first generation college students to perform productions based on their own experiences and those of their relatives. It also allows them to travel and perform before a national and international audience. As Kevin Brown states “Theatre helps us understand people from cultures other than our own. We can learn a lot about people from cultures all around the world by studying their performance traditions. In doing so, we can learn to be less ethnocentric, and more accepting of others.” With this project students empower themselves through re-crossing borders with their narratives. They learn to embrace their diversity and to be advocates for immigrants and refugees as “agents of change.”
Presenters
Bibiana DíazAssociate Professor, World Languages and Literatures Department, California State University, California, United States Ana Cecilia Lara
Professor. Director of World Languages | Director of the Graduate Program in Spanish Education | Coordinator of Spanish Teacher Licensure , Department of English, Theater, and World Languages, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, North Carolina, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Education and Learning in a World of Difference
KEYWORDS
Theater Immigrants Borders
Digital Media
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