LAII Lecture Series: Asylum Seekers' Journey: Challenges along the Path
Dr. Kimberly Gauderman and Attorney Rebecca Kitson
Friday, April 12, 2019 | 12:00 pm - 01:30 pm
Latin American and Iberian Institute
801 Yale Blvd NE (campus building #165)
About:
Anti-immigration rhetoric and immigrant surveillance, detention, and deportation are defining features of U.S. politics and federal policy and practice. Attorney Rebecca Kitson and Professor and expert witness Kimberly Gauderman will discuss the recent and ongoing challenges that refugees face in the asylum process.
Dr. Kimberly Gauderman joined The University of New Mexico History Department in 1998. She teaches a variety of courses focusing on early and modern Latin American history. Reflective of her research interests and her concern for social justice and human rights, she focuses on the construction of institutional authority in the early modern and modern periods in Iberia and Latin America and the creation of racial categories, gender norms, and sexuality. She offers courses on early Mexico (including Central America), early South America, modern Central America and the Andean nations that include such themes as indigenous peoples, women, gender and sexuality and human rights. In addition to her research and teaching at UNM, Gauderman is on the board of faculty at FLACSO, Ecuador. For the last nine years she has also worked as an expert witness for individuals seeking asylum from Andean nations and Central America. She has worked with attorneys across the nation to support women, members of the LGBTI community, and unaccompanied minors who seek asylum in the United States because of domestic, sexual, and gang violence.
Rebecca Kitson obtained her J.D. from The University of New Mexico School of Law. Throughout law school, Kitson worked with immigrant survivors of domestic violence at Catholic Charities, specializing in petitions and visas under the Violence Against Women Act. In May of 2012, Kitson established her own firm, where she continues to practice the spectrum of Immigration Law, including employment and family based immigration and removal defense. She has sat on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union since 2005, the Board of the Immigration Section of the NM State Bar since 2008, and the Board of the NM Hispanic Bar Association since 2011. She has presented widely at CLE’s through the NM State Bar and has been a presenter/panelist at various conferences through the University of New Mexico. Kitson has served as a presenter for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) at the state and national level, and been a contributing author for AILA’s Consular Processing Guide for the past two editions. She serves as a volunteer attorney for non-profits and faith-based organizations statewide.
Notes:
This event is free and open to the public.
