Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2026
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Psychology
Advisor
Michelle Fine
Committee Members
Brett Stoudt
Kandice Chuh
Krystal Perkins
Arita Balaram
Subject Categories
Social Psychology
Keywords
oral history, social movement, collective liberation, migrant justice, praxis, liberation dreaming
Abstract
My dissertation expands theorizing, visions, and paths toward meaningful migrant justice by centering contemporary, intersectional community organizing in the US that aims for transformative change. This research builds on critiques of the limitations of mainstream single-issue, inclusionary strategies that movements often feel pressured to employ. These strategies not only fail to enact structural change but, historically, they also inadvertently harm relationships within and between historically marginalized communities. Because inclusionary strategies reinforce the undeservingness of some to include a deserving few, they cause splintering within communities and foreclose solidarity across them. I attend to contemporary examples of alternative approaches and their potential for greater structural and relational transformation. I analyze and amplify lessons from organizers whose theorizing, organizing praxis, and liberation dreaming consciously eschew logics of deservingness for inclusion, forge connections across fronts of struggle, and work toward transformative change that benefits all.
I gather and examine oral histories with ten NYC-based organizers. They are either first- and second-generation immigrants of various racial backgrounds, from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia; or are Indigenous to lands occupied by the US. Most are women, genderqueer, trans, and/or queer people who have long been on the frontlines strengthening links between migrant justice, Indigenous struggles, Black liberation, prison abolitionist movements, and more. To further contextualize the accounts, I also draw on autoethnography and my own experiences of over 8 years of community organizing in NYC and from archival materials (political literature, media documentation, policy memos). The oral histories focus on NYC organizing between 2011-2020, however organizers also draw from lived and organizing experiences in other places including México, Arizona, Oregon, Standing Rock/North Dakota, the US South, Oklahoma, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Eastern Europe.
The first substantive chapter, Chapter 2, examines narrators’ political consciousness formation, arguing their narratives demonstrate the impossibility of separating “migrant issues” from “other” issues within the nuanced realities of people’s lives; in fact, the conspicuousness of entwined oppressive systems make these connections for them. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss how organizers seek out and forge approaches to tangibly improve conditions in ways consistent with more expansive, long-term ideals that do not sacrifice anyone. These include non-reformist reform to end local police and city collaboration with ICE, multi-issue neighborhood defense, cultural political community-building, abolitionist sanctuary, and prison abolitionist work. Not only do alternatives exist, but I make the case they have important benefits that reformist, inclusionary approaches do not: they intentionally address urgent needs while opening paths to demand more for everyone and create conditions that foster more liberatory relationships. These findings reject the binary distinction between the pragmatic and the transformative. Chapter 5 elaborates on many challenges to learn from, prepare for, and continue working to address. In Chapter 6, I experiment with form to explore narrators’ complex responses about their desired futures. I find that radical organizers—often dismissed as idealistic—can struggle to dream in ways not grounded in and, at times, limited by historical precedent and present conditions. I discuss how imagined possibility can create material possibility. Lastly, I argue that envisioning futures has immense value that transcends purely pragmatic terms.
My dissertation contributes to the social sciences, critical ethnic and Indigenous studies, American studies, and related fields by offering paths through tensions and theoretical impasses between movements and academic fields from the insight of real-life, contemporary attempts, successes, and struggles in connection-making. This research invites envisioning and working toward forms of relationality that can challenge and grow beyond oppressive contexts, as we tend to infrastructures that would foster more liberatory relations.
Furthermore, this research offers timely, actionable suggestions for policy and other efforts toward change that do not benefit some at the expense of others. By centering migrants as well as positionalities cast as rightfully excludable by both broader society and prominent migrant advocacy (due to noncitizen status and/or racist, anti-poor criminalization), this work illuminates foundations and intersections of exclusion, more broadly. It expands visions for justice while offering concrete, transformative strategy to chip away at oppressive structures and build agency and power of historically marginalized communities toward improving conditions for all.
Recommended Citation
Sanchez Carmen, Sonia A., "Migrant Justice through Collective Liberation: Contemporary Intersectional Theorizing, Organizing, and Dreaming" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6692
