Lisa McLean | King's University College at Western University (original) (raw)
Papers by Lisa McLean
Illness, Crisis & Loss, 2024
Drawing upon ethnographic research with Central American relatives of disappeared migrants, this ... more Drawing upon ethnographic research with Central American relatives of disappeared migrants, this article elaborates on the concept of 'grief activism,' contributing to a growing body of literature on the mobilization of personal grief in social justice movements. Through ethnographic detail and semi-structured interviewing, the article explores the formation of local, regional, and transnational movements of relatives of disappeared migrants, focusing on their efforts to prevent future disappearances and thereby protect other families from experiencing the same loss. The first-person testimonies of these families reveal how shared grief provides an avenue for building solidarity and advancing liberatory calls for justice, while activism serves a meaning making function for those grieving ambiguous loss. This article contributes to theoretical knowledge about the connections between injustice, grief, and activism, while highlighting the important role played by grieving families in advocating for social change.
Citizenship Studies, 2020
This article explores the struggles of Central American families of disappeared migrants to maint... more This article explores the struggles of Central American families of disappeared migrants to maintain hope in the search for their loved ones along the migrant route in Mexico. The militarization of borders and threats from organized crime and corrupt state authorities have led to the disappearance and death of thousands of migrants in transit in Mexico. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted with the families of disappeared migrants, this article contributes to literature on migrant struggles by analyzing the Caravan of Central American Mothers of Disappeared Migrants as an example of a life-centered politics that rejects the normalization of migrant suffering and death. By searching for their disappeared loved ones, the families enact an embodied demand that migrants be treated as subjects with rightsboth in life and death.
Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals, 2019
This paper presents the progress of ongoing research into the migrant caravans in Mexico or the e... more This paper presents the progress of ongoing research into the migrant caravans in Mexico or the exoduses of displaced Central Americans taking place since 2011, but which intensified in 2018. Their presence challenges the grammar of narrating and practising specific forms of migration governmentality, while at the same time forming a kind of migrant self-defence or insurrection, whose main characteristics are walking en masse, without coyotes or legal permission, and along paths controlled by migration agents colluding with organised crime who continue to exercise an "indirect private government". In short, this paper is a reflection on the results obtained from the ongoing research, which is mainly genealogical and historical in nature.
Routledge Companion to Peace and Conflict Studies, 2019
Migration and the Contested Politics of Justice, 2021
This chapter presents a preliminary discursive analysis of the contemporary “immigration state of... more This chapter presents a preliminary discursive analysis of the contemporary “immigration state of emergency” (Oliviero, 2013) that was posited by the Trump administration in response to the emergence of the 2018 migrant caravans. The Trump administration's use of a rhetoric of crisis, threat and even humanitarian protection to justify punitive immigration policies follows a long history in the United States of framing migration as a source of crisis and emergency, producing migrants as subjects of state power and control. In this chapter, we present an alternative genealogy of the caravanization of migration, arguing that the migrant caravans, organized for the protection and preservation of migrants’ lives, represent a modality of resistance and self-defence. This emerging Mesoamerican social movement (Balaguera and Gonzales, 2018) of the displaced has challenged the grammar with which migration is understood, explained and managed and has generated a shift in the networks of solidarity and radical hospitality in Mexico.
Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals, n.º 122, 2019
Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de ... more Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de migrantes en México o los éxodos de desplazados centroamericanos-que tienen lugar desde 2011, pero que se intensificaron a partir 2018-, los cuales desafían con su presencia la gramática con la que se narran y se practican formas específicas de gubernamentalidad migratoria y, al mismo tiempo, consolidan una forma de autodefensa-o insurrección-migrante cuyas principales características son el caminar en masa, sin coyotes y sin permiso legal, por los caminos controlados por agentes migratorios coludidos con el crimen organizado y que siguen ejerciendo un «gobierno privado indirecto». Este trabajo constituye, en definitiva, una re-flexión sobre los resultados obtenidos de la investigación en curso, principalmente de corte genealógico o histórico.
Palabras clave: caravanas de migrantes, éxodo, insurrección migrante, México, Estados Unidos, América Central
Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals, 2019
Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de ... more Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de migrantes en México o los éxodos de desplazados centroamericanos-que tienen lugar desde 2011, pero que se intensificaron a partir 2018-, los cuales desafían con su presencia la gramática con la que se narran y se practican formas específicas de gubernamentalidad migratoria y, al mismo tiempo, consolidan una forma de autodefensa- o insurrección-migrante cuyas principales características son el caminar en masa, sin coyotes y sin permiso legal, por los caminos controlados por agentes migratorios coludidos con el crimen organizado y que siguen ejerciendo un «gobierno privado indirecto». Este trabajo constituye, en definitiva, una re-flexión sobre los resultados obtenidos de la investigación en curso, principalmente de corte genealógico o histórico.
Abstract: This paper presents the progress of ongoing research into the migrant caravans in Mexico or the exoduses of displaced Central Americans taking place since 2011, but which intensified in 2018. Their presence challenges the grammar of narrating and practising specific forms of migration governmentality, while at the same time forming a kind of migrant self-defence or insurrection, whose main characteristics are walking en masse, without coyotes or legal permission, and along paths controlled by migration agents colluding with organised crime who continue to exercise an "indirect private government". In short, this paper is a reflection on the results obtained from the ongoing research, which is mainly genealogical and historical in nature.
Illness, Crisis & Loss, 2024
Drawing upon ethnographic research with Central American relatives of disappeared migrants, this ... more Drawing upon ethnographic research with Central American relatives of disappeared migrants, this article elaborates on the concept of 'grief activism,' contributing to a growing body of literature on the mobilization of personal grief in social justice movements. Through ethnographic detail and semi-structured interviewing, the article explores the formation of local, regional, and transnational movements of relatives of disappeared migrants, focusing on their efforts to prevent future disappearances and thereby protect other families from experiencing the same loss. The first-person testimonies of these families reveal how shared grief provides an avenue for building solidarity and advancing liberatory calls for justice, while activism serves a meaning making function for those grieving ambiguous loss. This article contributes to theoretical knowledge about the connections between injustice, grief, and activism, while highlighting the important role played by grieving families in advocating for social change.
Citizenship Studies, 2020
This article explores the struggles of Central American families of disappeared migrants to maint... more This article explores the struggles of Central American families of disappeared migrants to maintain hope in the search for their loved ones along the migrant route in Mexico. The militarization of borders and threats from organized crime and corrupt state authorities have led to the disappearance and death of thousands of migrants in transit in Mexico. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted with the families of disappeared migrants, this article contributes to literature on migrant struggles by analyzing the Caravan of Central American Mothers of Disappeared Migrants as an example of a life-centered politics that rejects the normalization of migrant suffering and death. By searching for their disappeared loved ones, the families enact an embodied demand that migrants be treated as subjects with rightsboth in life and death.
Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals, 2019
This paper presents the progress of ongoing research into the migrant caravans in Mexico or the e... more This paper presents the progress of ongoing research into the migrant caravans in Mexico or the exoduses of displaced Central Americans taking place since 2011, but which intensified in 2018. Their presence challenges the grammar of narrating and practising specific forms of migration governmentality, while at the same time forming a kind of migrant self-defence or insurrection, whose main characteristics are walking en masse, without coyotes or legal permission, and along paths controlled by migration agents colluding with organised crime who continue to exercise an "indirect private government". In short, this paper is a reflection on the results obtained from the ongoing research, which is mainly genealogical and historical in nature.
Routledge Companion to Peace and Conflict Studies, 2019
Migration and the Contested Politics of Justice, 2021
This chapter presents a preliminary discursive analysis of the contemporary “immigration state of... more This chapter presents a preliminary discursive analysis of the contemporary “immigration state of emergency” (Oliviero, 2013) that was posited by the Trump administration in response to the emergence of the 2018 migrant caravans. The Trump administration's use of a rhetoric of crisis, threat and even humanitarian protection to justify punitive immigration policies follows a long history in the United States of framing migration as a source of crisis and emergency, producing migrants as subjects of state power and control. In this chapter, we present an alternative genealogy of the caravanization of migration, arguing that the migrant caravans, organized for the protection and preservation of migrants’ lives, represent a modality of resistance and self-defence. This emerging Mesoamerican social movement (Balaguera and Gonzales, 2018) of the displaced has challenged the grammar with which migration is understood, explained and managed and has generated a shift in the networks of solidarity and radical hospitality in Mexico.
Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals, n.º 122, 2019
Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de ... more Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de migrantes en México o los éxodos de desplazados centroamericanos-que tienen lugar desde 2011, pero que se intensificaron a partir 2018-, los cuales desafían con su presencia la gramática con la que se narran y se practican formas específicas de gubernamentalidad migratoria y, al mismo tiempo, consolidan una forma de autodefensa-o insurrección-migrante cuyas principales características son el caminar en masa, sin coyotes y sin permiso legal, por los caminos controlados por agentes migratorios coludidos con el crimen organizado y que siguen ejerciendo un «gobierno privado indirecto». Este trabajo constituye, en definitiva, una re-flexión sobre los resultados obtenidos de la investigación en curso, principalmente de corte genealógico o histórico.
Palabras clave: caravanas de migrantes, éxodo, insurrección migrante, México, Estados Unidos, América Central
Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals, 2019
Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de ... more Resumen: Este artículo presenta los avances de una investigación en curso sobre las caravanas de migrantes en México o los éxodos de desplazados centroamericanos-que tienen lugar desde 2011, pero que se intensificaron a partir 2018-, los cuales desafían con su presencia la gramática con la que se narran y se practican formas específicas de gubernamentalidad migratoria y, al mismo tiempo, consolidan una forma de autodefensa- o insurrección-migrante cuyas principales características son el caminar en masa, sin coyotes y sin permiso legal, por los caminos controlados por agentes migratorios coludidos con el crimen organizado y que siguen ejerciendo un «gobierno privado indirecto». Este trabajo constituye, en definitiva, una re-flexión sobre los resultados obtenidos de la investigación en curso, principalmente de corte genealógico o histórico.
Abstract: This paper presents the progress of ongoing research into the migrant caravans in Mexico or the exoduses of displaced Central Americans taking place since 2011, but which intensified in 2018. Their presence challenges the grammar of narrating and practising specific forms of migration governmentality, while at the same time forming a kind of migrant self-defence or insurrection, whose main characteristics are walking en masse, without coyotes or legal permission, and along paths controlled by migration agents colluding with organised crime who continue to exercise an "indirect private government". In short, this paper is a reflection on the results obtained from the ongoing research, which is mainly genealogical and historical in nature.