Amelia Frank‐vitale
Biographic Data
| ID | 93398 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amelia Frank‐vitale |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amelia |
| FAMILY NAME | Frank‐vitale |
| SIGNATURE | VITALE A F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6828-6653 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Empty Justice: Ethnographic Court‐Witnessing in Authoritarian Times
This article investigates the operations of United States immigration courts ethnographically, examining how law, politics, and bureaucracy converge in the everyday production of immigration adjudication. Based on over 500 h of observation in 36 courtrooms across 11 immigration courts, we document how life‐altering deportation decisions—often in absentia and lasting only minutes—are rendered through routinized procedures that obscure judicial amb…
Honduras, Gangs, and Asylum Law
Decision-makers within the US immigration system have long looked skeptically on asylum claims based on persecution by street gangs. We draw on ethnographic research conducted in San Pedro Sula, Honduras to argue that this skepticism and the corresponding legal precedents rely on an incorrect understanding of the issues at stake. Our evidence, considered in light of recent scholarship on violence in Latin America, contradicts three assumptions th…
Towards a social determination of health framework for understanding climate disruption and health-disease processes
We compare the social determinants of health (SDOH) and the social determination of health (SDET) from the school of Latin American Social Medicine/Collective Health. Whereas SDET acknowledges how capitalist rule continues to shape global structures and public health concerns, SDOH proffers neoliberal solutions that obscure much of the violence and dispossession that influence contemporary migration and health-disease experiences. Working in simu…
Coyotes, caravans, and the Central American migrant smuggling continuum
Old Challenges Confront a New Government in Honduras: Xiomara Castro inherited a militarized state with ties to drug trafficking. Now, her ambitious proposals to rethink security in Honduras must over…
Particular Social Group Trouble: Producing Categories of "Unworthy" Asylum Seekers
Developing ethnographic knowledge is largely about understanding and retaining nuance, complexity, and, even, contradiction. In the asylum courtroom, however, the law looks for certainty, clear percentages of likelihood of harm, and general, essential claims that a given people/country are a particular way. In this essay, I reflect on the ways in which the asylum system, by requiring that individuals be at risk because of their category (particul…
Rolling the Windows Up: On (Not) Researching Violence and Strategic Distance
In this article, I reflect on my experience conducting fieldwork in some of the violent neighbourhoods of urban Honduras. Using examples from ethnography conducted in and around San Pedro Sula on life after deportation for Honduran migrants, I make two interventions into broader discussions regarding the methodological adaptations necessary for conducting research in violent contexts. First, I tease out the complex relationship between studying w…
Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation by Lauren Heidbrink
Reviewed by: Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation by Lauren Heidbrink Amelia Frank-Vitale Lauren Heidbrink. Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020. 213 pp. Thinking about my own sense of identity, I realise that it has always depended on the fact of being a migrant, on the difference from the rest of you. So one of the fascinating things about this discussion is to find myself centered …
“Such a Thing as the American Dream: ” On Immigration, Affect, and the Election of Donald Trump
In this article, I trace the structures of feeling underlying the 2106 election of Donald Trump as played out through the fear felt by immigrant communities and the fervor felt by anti-immigrant Trump supporters. The discourses of both groups rest on competing claims of the American Dream. Weaving together ethnographic data from fieldwork conducted among migrants and immigrants in Mexico, Honduras, and the United States with expressions of anti-i…
A State of Mistrust: Questionable homicide numbers, a murky police purge, and a pervasive distrust of authorities in Honduras reveal deep state failures that enable violence and impunity
Officer Mendez* had no illusions about fighting crime or making his country a better place when he decided to join the Honduran police force. After a failed attempt to migrate to the United States
Lady Frijoles: Las Caravanas Centroamericanas Y El Poder De La Hípervisibilidad De La Migración Indocumentada
Since at least 2011, Central American migrants and their allies in Mexico have staged caravans, combining humanitarian accompaniment with protest, protecting individuals from harm while demanding their rights be respected while in Mexican territory. In 2018 and 2019, this phenomenon took a new dimension, as tens of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants organized themselves into caravans, starting from Central America for the first time. As two an…
The Generation of the Coup: Honduran Youth at Risk and of Risk
In this article, we show how generation as a category is an important analytic for understanding social and political dynamics in Honduras. We argue that coming of age in the post-coup d'état era in Honduras has shaped young Honduran's sense of their own life chances, what they can expect from society and government, and what kinds of possibilities they imagine for their futures. Drawing from ethnography conducted in Honduras and with Hondurans d…
Stuck in Motion: Inhabiting the Space of Transit in Central American Migration
En este artículo examino lo que significa habitar el espacio de tránsito. Propongo un análisis enfocado en el "medio", abordándolo como tal y no en relación con los lugares y momentos que quedan a ambos extremos. Este trabajo responde a estos cuestionamientos para centrarse en la travesía migratoria, agregando una lente antropológica a la condición humana de encontrase en el medio. Analizo la migración de los centroamericanos indocumentados en Mé…
The Crime of Migrant Accompaniment
Stuck in Motion: Inhabiting the Space of Transit in Central American Migration
En este artículo examino lo que significa habitar el espacio de tránsito. Propongo un análisis enfocado en el "medio", abordándolo como tal y no en relación con los lugares y momentos que quedan a ambos extremos. Este trabajo responde a estos cuestionamientos para centrarse en la travesía migratoria, agregando una lente antropológica a la condición humana de encontrase en el medio. Analizo la migración de los centroamericanos indocumentados en Mé…
Lady Frijoles: Las Caravanas Centroamericanas Y El Poder De La Hípervisibilidad De La Migración Indocumentada
Since at least 2011, Central American migrants and their allies in Mexico have staged caravans, combining humanitarian accompaniment with protest, protecting individuals from harm while demanding their rights be respected while in Mexican territory. In 2018 and 2019, this phenomenon took a new dimension, as tens of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants organized themselves into caravans, starting from Central America for the first time. As two an…
The Generation of the Coup: Honduran Youth at Risk and of Risk
In this article, we show how generation as a category is an important analytic for understanding social and political dynamics in Honduras. We argue that coming of age in the post-coup d'état era in Honduras has shaped young Honduran's sense of their own life chances, what they can expect from society and government, and what kinds of possibilities they imagine for their futures. Drawing from ethnography conducted in Honduras and with Hondurans d…
Rolling the Windows Up: On (Not) Researching Violence and Strategic Distance
In this article, I reflect on my experience conducting fieldwork in some of the violent neighbourhoods of urban Honduras. Using examples from ethnography conducted in and around San Pedro Sula on life after deportation for Honduran migrants, I make two interventions into broader discussions regarding the methodological adaptations necessary for conducting research in violent contexts. First, I tease out the complex relationship between studying w…
Particular Social Group Trouble: Producing Categories of "Unworthy" Asylum Seekers
Developing ethnographic knowledge is largely about understanding and retaining nuance, complexity, and, even, contradiction. In the asylum courtroom, however, the law looks for certainty, clear percentages of likelihood of harm, and general, essential claims that a given people/country are a particular way. In this essay, I reflect on the ways in which the asylum system, by requiring that individuals be at risk because of their category (particul…
Towards a social determination of health framework for understanding climate disruption and health-disease processes
We compare the social determinants of health (SDOH) and the social determination of health (SDET) from the school of Latin American Social Medicine/Collective Health. Whereas SDET acknowledges how capitalist rule continues to shape global structures and public health concerns, SDOH proffers neoliberal solutions that obscure much of the violence and dispossession that influence contemporary migration and health-disease experiences. Working in simu…
The Crime of Migrant Accompaniment
“Such a Thing as the American Dream: ” On Immigration, Affect, and the Election of Donald Trump
In this article, I trace the structures of feeling underlying the 2106 election of Donald Trump as played out through the fear felt by immigrant communities and the fervor felt by anti-immigrant Trump supporters. The discourses of both groups rest on competing claims of the American Dream. Weaving together ethnographic data from fieldwork conducted among migrants and immigrants in Mexico, Honduras, and the United States with expressions of anti-i…
A State of Mistrust: Questionable homicide numbers, a murky police purge, and a pervasive distrust of authorities in Honduras reveal deep state failures that enable violence and impunity
Officer Mendez* had no illusions about fighting crime or making his country a better place when he decided to join the Honduran police force. After a failed attempt to migrate to the United States
Lady Frijoles: Las Caravanas Centroamericanas Y El Poder De La Hípervisibilidad De La Migración Indocumentada
Since at least 2011, Central American migrants and their allies in Mexico have staged caravans, combining humanitarian accompaniment with protest, protecting individuals from harm while demanding their rights be respected while in Mexican territory. In 2018 and 2019, this phenomenon took a new dimension, as tens of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants organized themselves into caravans, starting from Central America for the first time. As two an…
The Generation of the Coup: Honduran Youth at Risk and of Risk
In this article, we show how generation as a category is an important analytic for understanding social and political dynamics in Honduras. We argue that coming of age in the post-coup d'état era in Honduras has shaped young Honduran's sense of their own life chances, what they can expect from society and government, and what kinds of possibilities they imagine for their futures. Drawing from ethnography conducted in Honduras and with Hondurans d…
Stuck in Motion: Inhabiting the Space of Transit in Central American Migration
En este artículo examino lo que significa habitar el espacio de tránsito. Propongo un análisis enfocado en el "medio", abordándolo como tal y no en relación con los lugares y momentos que quedan a ambos extremos. Este trabajo responde a estos cuestionamientos para centrarse en la travesía migratoria, agregando una lente antropológica a la condición humana de encontrase en el medio. Analizo la migración de los centroamericanos indocumentados en Mé…
Rolling the Windows Up: On (Not) Researching Violence and Strategic Distance
In this article, I reflect on my experience conducting fieldwork in some of the violent neighbourhoods of urban Honduras. Using examples from ethnography conducted in and around San Pedro Sula on life after deportation for Honduran migrants, I make two interventions into broader discussions regarding the methodological adaptations necessary for conducting research in violent contexts. First, I tease out the complex relationship between studying w…
Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation by Lauren Heidbrink
Reviewed by: Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation by Lauren Heidbrink Amelia Frank-Vitale Lauren Heidbrink. Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020. 213 pp. Thinking about my own sense of identity, I realise that it has always depended on the fact of being a migrant, on the difference from the rest of you. So one of the fascinating things about this discussion is to find myself centered …
Old Challenges Confront a New Government in Honduras: Xiomara Castro inherited a militarized state with ties to drug trafficking. Now, her ambitious proposals to rethink security in Honduras must over…
Particular Social Group Trouble: Producing Categories of "Unworthy" Asylum Seekers
Developing ethnographic knowledge is largely about understanding and retaining nuance, complexity, and, even, contradiction. In the asylum courtroom, however, the law looks for certainty, clear percentages of likelihood of harm, and general, essential claims that a given people/country are a particular way. In this essay, I reflect on the ways in which the asylum system, by requiring that individuals be at risk because of their category (particul…
Coyotes, caravans, and the Central American migrant smuggling continuum
Towards a social determination of health framework for understanding climate disruption and health-disease processes
We compare the social determinants of health (SDOH) and the social determination of health (SDET) from the school of Latin American Social Medicine/Collective Health. Whereas SDET acknowledges how capitalist rule continues to shape global structures and public health concerns, SDOH proffers neoliberal solutions that obscure much of the violence and dispossession that influence contemporary migration and health-disease experiences. Working in simu…
Honduras, Gangs, and Asylum Law
Decision-makers within the US immigration system have long looked skeptically on asylum claims based on persecution by street gangs. We draw on ethnographic research conducted in San Pedro Sula, Honduras to argue that this skepticism and the corresponding legal precedents rely on an incorrect understanding of the issues at stake. Our evidence, considered in light of recent scholarship on violence in Latin America, contradicts three assumptions th…
Empty Justice: Ethnographic Court‐Witnessing in Authoritarian Times
This article investigates the operations of United States immigration courts ethnographically, examining how law, politics, and bureaucracy converge in the everyday production of immigration adjudication. Based on over 500 h of observation in 36 courtrooms across 11 immigration courts, we document how life‐altering deportation decisions—often in absentia and lasting only minutes—are rendered through routinized procedures that obscure judicial amb…
Political science (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (6 works) · Criminology (5 works) · Immigration (5 works) · Ethnography (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Art (3 works)