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Project Descriptions
Spring 2025

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The Mobilization of Undocumented Immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona

Kathryn Abrams, Professor  
Law  

Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2025.

This project examines the mobilization of undocumented immigrants in Phoenix, beginning with resistance to SB 1070 and "enforcement by attrition" and continuing through the Trump administration. It seeks explain the emergence of a social movement of undocumented immigrants and analyze the practices through which social movement organizations support prospective participants who lack legal status in achieving the internal empowerment and external legitimacy necessary to mount an effective social movement.

Role: URAP students will 1) transcribe and 2) analyze audiofiles of interviews of organizational leaders, recorded during the Trump administration, which address the question of how organizations have adapted to a systematically hostile federal immigration enforcement policy.

Qualifications: Desirable but not essential: coursework in ethnic/Latino studies, or social movements; general familiarity with major federal initiatives on immigration over the past decade (the DREAM Act, DACA, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, DAPA, etc).

Required: interest in studying the immigrant rights movement; patience (transcribing can be slow and sometimes tedious work); attention to detail; ability to identify conceptual themes in personal and institutional narratives.

Hours: 3-5 hrs

Off-Campus Research Site: Students will meet with me on campus (at the law school), but the audiofiles should be transportable, so that students can do their work off campus if they prefer.

 Social Sciences

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