Professor Kent Ono speaks at Humanities on the Edge Lecture Series

The most recent onslaught of anti-immigration rhetoric and politics has put undocumented immigrants in an even more precarious position. One response by undocumented people has been to take up sanctuary in such places as churches and sanctuary cities—places where U.S. immigration law enforcement may have more limited authority. This talk thinks through the idea of sanctuary and its potential usefulness. Not only can sanctuary help shield undocumented immigrants from unwanted and unwarranted immigration control and potential violence, but it can also help scholars and students think about freedom outside of the logics of the state. Indeed, extra-state institutions, such as sanctuaries, make it possible to think about freedom across extra-state institutions transnationally, as well as to imagine freedom as unconnected, and hence untethered, to the logics and institutions of the state.