The Migrations Forum is an interdisciplinary works-in-progress series for Cornell migrations scholars, bringing together graduate students and faculty across disciplines to share ongoing research.

At this session, John W. Kennedy, graduate student in the Department of Romance Studies will present on his paper, "Indebted Migrations: Nomothetic and Idiographic Approaches in Politicized Time." In this paper, Kennedy analyzes how social science approaches to Central American migration have been undertaken throughout the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, and how these approaches have paralleled in time the social conditions that have exacerbated out-migration to the US, Mexico, and other countries along migrant routes. He points to Central American caravans as arising out of the historic nature of inequity in the region in terms of race, class, and gender, and argues that the caravans can be understood as a response to both statist failures and the necessarily limited capacities of social services offered by non-governmental actors.