WGSS Ph.D. candidate Sara Rodríguez-Argüelles Riva recently wrote an article that was featured on Oxford’s Border Criminologies blog, titled “Encounters of US State Violence at the Border: Separation, Confinement, and Punishment of Center American Asylum-Seeking Nuclear Families.” 

In the article, Sara discusses multiple experiences through the story of “María,” a woman detained with her daughter and separated from her other family members by Border Patrol. She explores violence and trauma that occur for asylum-seekers at the border as they seek asylum from dangerous situations in their home countries. Read the full article here.

Sara’s research with the department mainly focuses on immigration, asylum-seekers, refugees and state violence. She recently did research abroad in England and Australia, fieldwork with asylum-seekers in Texas, and won the Presidential Fellowship in 2017. More of Sara’s work can be found on Academia.edu.