Ambrose Women for Social Justice

Annual Social and Economic Justice Conference
“‘Go After the Women’: Mothers Against Illegal Aliens’ Campaign Against Mexican Immigrant Women and their Children”
Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009
Rogalski Center on the St. Ambrose University campus

This year’s keynote lecture will be presented by Dr. Mary Romero, Professor, Justice and Social Inquiry, School of Social Transformation, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.

Her presentation will examine specific aspects of racist nativist sentiment towards Mexican immigrant women by focusing on the anti-immigration group, Mothers Against Illegal Aliens (MAIA). By looking at the notions of motherhood as it shaped by intersectionality and subordination, she examines how two opposing mothering discourses can co-exist side by side. Uncovering their use of nativism and mothering discourse points to their selection of metaphors used to construct immigrant mothers and their children as threats to the health, education and future of the children of U.S. citizens.

Conference Schedule

1:30 p.m. Welcome and Film Presentation: “Escuela (School)” followed by Q&A

7:30 p.m. Keynote Lecture delivered by Dr. Mary Romero

For more information contact Katy Strzepek, 563/333-6113.

The 2009 Ambrose Women for Social Justice Annual Social and Economic Justice Lecture and Film Series is part of St. Ambrose University’s Migration Project, created to examine the many ways in which movements of people, ideas, and materials have shaped the modern world. For more information about the Migration Project and full program schedule, visit the project website.