Magana Awarded AAA Minority Dissertation Fellowship

Kathleen Terry-Sharp
AAA Academic Relations

AAA and the Committee on Minority Issues in Anthropology are pleased to announce the selection of Rocio Magana as the recipient of the 2007–08 AAA Minority Dissertation Fellowship. Magana is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago. She earned a BA in anthropology and sociology with minors in French and philosophy from California State, Fresno, in 2001 and received her MA in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Chicago in 2003. Her master thesis was: “National (In)Security, Contracting Borders & Threatening Others: The Historical Construction of the US-Mexico Border as a National Threat.” She also attended the Universite de Paris X, Nanterre.

Magana’s dissertation research title is “Bodies on the Line: The Protection of Life, Death and Authority on the Arizona-Mexico Border.” It examines the dynamics around the exposure and protection of life in the Arizona-Mexico region in order to ask what kinds of sociality and sociopolitical engagement become possible in an environment in which deliberate neglect is part of both American and Mexican governmental policies. Under what conditions and through what processes do policies that have proven both ineffective and life-threatening become socially, politically and morally sustainable. The monograph she proposes develops a theorization of the politics of life in the production and contestation of authority, in this case, through an examination of competing discourses and practices to protect social and biological life in the Arizona-Sonora border region.

Rocio Magana (C) speaks about the expectations and experience people have of the border and the desert with a couple who consented both to have their photo taken and to participate in the research for “Bodies on the Line: The Protection of Life, Death and Authority on the Arizona-Mexico Border.” Photo courtesy Michael Hyatt

The dissertation is based on over 30 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Arizona-Mexico border region between 2001 and 2006. The project focuses on Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona cities, towns and settlements. It explores how, in a landscape in which national security and physical safety collide and coexist, the protection of life and the treatment of death become idioms through which sociopolitical authority is produced, rights are exercised and the border is mapped onto its subject. The dissertation develops a theorization of participatory biopolitics—seen here as the multiscalar constitution and contestation of political power on the basis of protection of social or biological life—through analysis of localized intervention efforts to police the border and save lives.

Given the contrasts between the often-intangible character of border security and the brutal physicality of death and injury, the project’s methodology was designed to capture how this border and its safety and security “crises” are variously experienced, perceived and imagined. Her data collection focused on the activities, strategies, relations and understandings of those who experience or responded to the presence, death or injury of illegal border-crossers. The characteristics of the region and the phenomena also required a multi-sited approach. For over two years, she visited and stayed in dozens of towns, settlements and sites on both sides of the border. Participant-observation took place on both sides of the boundary and ranged from taking part in multi-day desert hikes and joining patrols, to observing hospital visits and funerals. Over 200 interviews were conducted.

Magana states that her research and career plans are intertwined. She intends to continue to explore issues in which the politics of life (biopolitics), territoriality, social tensions and conflict present challenges to democracy and governmentality. This will happen in three ways: beyond the exploration of her dissertation, she will continue to carry out ethnographic research and anthropological writings on the Arizona-Sonora and the US-Mexico border. Second, her research will involve the field of security and preemptive studies. Third, she intends to explore comparative and interdisciplinary collaborations with scholars working on border and biopolitical issues in Europe and Latin America.

Magana will be recognized at the AAA Annual Meeting in Washington DC during the awards ceremony on Saturday evening. The Committee on Minority Issues in Anthropology (CMIA) also chose Sameena Mulla (Johns Hopkins U), Lidia Marte (U Texas at Austin) and Anita P Chikkatur (U Pennsylvania) to receive “honorable mention” distinction. All four doctoral candidates will be invited to lunch with the CMIA during the annual meeting.

The Minority Dissertation Fellowship Award is awarded each year to an outstanding doctoral student. It is expected that the recipient will complete the dissertation with in the award period. The 2008–2009 Minority Dissertation Fellowship applications are currently available. The application deadline is February 15, 2008. Doctoral students who are interested in applying for the fellowship should contact the Department of Academic Relations at 703/528-1902, ext 3028.