José M. Cortez (University of Oregon)
What is Public Rhetoric?: US Immigration Policy Post-1994
Friday, April 24 10AM HG 1010
US immigration policy along the southwestern border is deadly. Since 1994, the US Border Patrol has used a strategy known as “Prevention through Deterrence,” which militarized urban border crossings and forced undocumented migrants to cross through dangerous terrain like the Sonoran Desert--often with tragic results. In this presentation, Professor Cortez will describe the cultural fallout of Prevention Through Deterrence. Additionally, Professor Cortez will speak to his work with migrant advocacy community organizations and share how Latinx artists, academics, and community members have developed sites of para-politics in times of disappearance.
BIO: José M. Cortez is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. His book, Disinventions: Rhetorics of Undocumented Immigration in the Deterrence Era, was published in 2025 by Penn State University Press.
This event is co-hosted by the ICWT Applied & Translational Humanities Initiative and UCI Rhetoric.