Secret Stories of Migration: Cars, Coffins, Cash, and Other Encomiendas

A daughter reunites, after 20 years, with a father she never knew. A son builds his parents a mansion he will never visit. A mother waits by the side of the road for the coffin returning her son to his childhood home. These stories of migration unfold over decades and across generations, reaching far beyond today’s headlines.

Academy-award winning filmmaker Purcell Carson (Journalism) has spent the past 10 years listening to Guatemalan migrants in Trenton, New Jersey—mothers and fathers, entrepreneurs and mourners, lovers, hucksters, and dreamers. Using observational cinema, oral history, material culture, social media, and personal archives, she documents the lived realities of migration and reverse migration in the Americas.

In this interdisciplinary lunch talk, Carson will give examples from a work-in-progress, and discuss the porous borders between journalism, history, and cinema with U.S. historian Rosina Lozano (History).

Presented by the Humanities Council’s Program in Journalism. Lunch talks are open to University faculty, students, and staff. Space is limited. RSVP required here.

*Please note, RSVP form requires University log-in credentials