Book talk and workshop featuring Dr. Rafael A. Martínez Orozco (Assistant Professor, Arizona State University) on Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States. December 6, 2024 from 5:30 to 7pm at the Workers’ Action Centre (720 Spadina Avenue). Sponsored by Ziibiing Lab, Indigenous Research Network, Technoscience Research Unit, Workers’ Action Centre, Critical Health and Social Action Lab, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, and Poder: Afro y Abya Yala Fuerza Feminista.

Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States takes readers on a journey through the history of the rise of undocumented youth social movements in the U.S. in the 21st century. The book follows the documentation trail of undocumented youth activists spanning over two decades of organizing. Each chapter carefully analyzes key organizing strategies used by undocumented youth to produce direct forms of activism that expose and critique repressive forms of state control and violence. This inquiry is particularly generative in relation to how immigrant bodies are erased, contained, and imagined as “aliens” or “illegal.” Professor Martínez, an undocu-scholar, intricately weaves his lived experience into this deeply insightful exploration. Martínez’s interdisciplinary approach will engage scholars and readers alike, resonating with disciplines such as history, American studies, Chicana and Chicano studies, and borderlands studies. Illegalized shows that undocumented youth and their activism represent a disruption to the social imaginary of the U.S. nation-state and its figurative and physical borders. It invites readers to explore how undocumented youth activists changed the way immigrant rights are discussed in the U.S. today.