Saturday, January 11, 2025

Five top books that tell complex, hopeful stories about migration

An award-winning teacher, scholar, and documentary film producer, Stanton E.F. Wortham is Charles Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College. A linguistic anthropologist and educational ethnographer with a particular expertise in how identities develop in human interactions, Wortham has conducted research spanning education, anthropology, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. He is the author or editor of ten books and more than 100 articles and chapters that cover a range of topics including linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, learning identity, and education in the new Latino diaspora.

Wortham's newest book is Migration Narratives: Diverging Stories in Schools, Churches, and Civic Institutions.

At Shepherd the author tagged five of the best books that tell complex, hopeful stories about migration. One title on the list:
Children of the Revolution by Laura J. Enríquez

I love the multigenerational stories that this book tells, tracing the children and grandchildren of the protagonists across generations.

I appreciate how the author does not flinch from describing challenges while also attending to the hope and persistence of the migrant women from Nicaragua. I also love how the story moves toward the possibilities that are open for future generations.
Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue