Within the broader national conversation about undocumented students and dreamers, there’s a group of students who are almost invisible and who don’t get sufficient attention yet whose experience is a complex interplay of race and immigration in America. The topic for this episode is Black undocumented students and the guest is Dr. Felecia Russell, the author of the new book, Amplifying Black Undocumented Student Voices in Higher Education. Drawing upon her own experience, Felecia has served as the Director of College Access at two high schools, the Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Cal Lutheran University, and now as the Director of the Higher Ed Immigration Portal at the Presidents Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.
Episode Themes:
Felecia’s journey from Jamaica to Los Angeles, and eventually discovering that she was undocumented.
Experiences of black undocumented students in the US, their feelings of invisibility and the interplay of race and immigrant status.
What Felecia learned from interviewing other Black undocumented students for her book.
Black immigrant identity and the Black diaspora in the U.S.
Felecia’s experience with writing a book that is both research and a personal narrative.
Advocacy for undocumented black students. What can campuses do to support Black undocumented students?
Felecia’s advice for young, undocumented Black students today.
Episode Resources:
Check out Felecia’s new book and the recording from the book launch
Learn more about Embracing Undocumented
Learn more about the Presidents’ Alliance and its resources
Listen to episode 32 with Dip Patel
My book: America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility
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