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Migration, immigration policy highlight UHCL professor’s keynote
June 30, 2017 | Jim Townsend
University of Houston-Clear Lake Associate Professor of Anthropology and Cross-Cultural
Studies Christine Kovic delivered the keynote address at the 52nd annual meeting of
the Southern Anthropological Society held in Carrolton, Ga. The Southern Anthropological
Society represents anthropology programs from colleges and universities across the
southern United States. Kovic’s remarks to fellow anthropologists focused on two flashpoint
social issues: migration and immigration policy.
Speaking about immigration, borders, and human rights, University of Houston-Clear Lake Associate Professor of Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Studies Christine Kovic recently delivered the keynote address at the 52nd annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society held in Carrolton, Ga.
The Southern Anthropological Society represents anthropology programs from colleges and universities across the southern United States. Kovic’s remarks to fellow anthropologists focused two of the United States’ most flashpoint social issues: migration and immigration policy.
The Conference theme, selected in the aftermath of the U.S. elections, “Ethnocentrism and its Many Guises,” addressed ethnocentrism as it “intersects with racism, sexism, xenophobia, religion, politics, and education” to quote from the conference program. Kovic’s keynote presentation addressed human rights and Mexican and Central American migrants in their journey toward the U.S., the ways migrants and allies work to defend human rights, and the role of anthropology.
Kovic is a researcher and author whose current work addresses human rights and immigration, with specific emphasis on Central American migrants crossing Mexico, migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border, and missing and unidentified migrants in South Texas. She also researches efforts to organize migrants and their descendants in the United States.
She is author of “Mayan Voices for Human Rights: Displaced Catholics in Highland Chiapas,” and co-editor of “Women of Chiapas: Making History in Times of Struggle and Hope.” Chiapas is Mexico’s southernmost state, bordering Guatemala.
“Understanding diverse immigrant and refugee communities is key to working in the greater Houston region, where more than one five people are born outside the U.S.,” Kovic noted. “Because of this, the topic of immigration and refugees are central to the coursework in Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Studies Programs at UHCL. Students learn about the reasons behind immigration and displacement, key issues that migrants face in new settings, and the many contributions of migrants. We also work to support students in developing skills to work with these populations in Houston and elsewhere.”
She is recipient of the University of Houston President’s Research Fellowship Award for her academic scholarship, a Houston Peace and Justice Center award for work to document migrant deaths in South Texas, and an earlier Rockefeller Residential Fellowship from the University of Florida for the program, “Religion in the Americas.”
For more information on UHCL’s anthropology program and other academic degrees in the College of Human Sciences and Humanities, visit www.uhcl.edu/human-sciences-humanities.