Immigrant Media in Relation to Environmental Issues in the U.S. Southwest

• Project/Area Number: 16K21087
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Area studies; Politics
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: Toohey David 名古屋大学, 教養教育院, 特任准教授 (70750165)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,860,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥660,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
• Keywords: Environment / Immigration / Land / U.S. Southwest / Political Theory / Mexican-American / Ecology / Gilles Deleuze / Primitive Accumulation / Discourse / Visual Culture / Identity / environment / immigration / United States / culture / economics / ecology / Political theory / Media

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Using archival sources and photos of visual culture in San Diego this research reconsidered the relationship between primitive accumulation (land loss) and: a.) traditional ecologies; and b.) cultural references to traditional ecology of Mexican-Americans in the U.S. Southwest. This research analysed different cultural modes of representation of this ecological viewpoint from a wide range of genres: poetry; fiction; maps; journalism; and visual arts (in the form of community murals) and put them into a context of political economy and discourse. Thus, empirical and theoretical sources were mixed to provide new perspectives. In addition to two conference papers, the research has produced one peer-reviewed journal articles and another peer-reviewed journal article which is in press. Additional papers are being developed about the urban context of Mexican-American environmentalism, especially from materials collected in urban sites in 2017.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Assemblages of Land Loss and Immigration in Film and Literature about the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (2018)
  • Author(s): David Toohey
  • Journal Title: Review of Human Rights Volume: 3, 1 Pages: 1-25
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Changes in Representation of Environmentalism in Latina/o English Language Media in the U.S. Southwest (2017)
  • Author(s): David Toohey
  • Journal Title: Media, English, and Communication Volume: 7 Pages: 31-49
  • NAID: 40021584033
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] Reaffirming the Material Presence of Immigrants in the Shadow of the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall. Walls in Anglo-American Literature (2017)
  • Author(s): David Toohey
  • Organizer: Nagoya University Literature and Culture Society, "Walls" in Anglo-American Literature and Culture Symposium
  • Place of Presentation: Nagoya University
  • Year and Date: 2017-03-11
• [Presentation] Land Loss and the Making of Latina/o Identity: Immigrant Communities and Deleuzian Becoming (2017)
  • Author(s): David Toohey
  • Organizer: 10th Annual Deleuze Studies Conference
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Making the U.S. Borderlands Invisible in Film and Policy (2017)
  • Author(s): David Toohey
  • Organizer: The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies.
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Reaffirming the Material Presence of Immigrants in the Shadow of the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall (2017)
  • Author(s): David Toohey
  • Organizer: Walls in Anglo-American Literature, Nagoya University Literature and Culture Society
• [Presentation] Latina/o Environmentalism in English-Based Media (2016)
  • Author(s): David Toohey
  • Organizer: Japan Association for Media English Studies Sixth Annual Convention
  • Place of Presentation: Tokyo, Japan
  • Year and Date: 2016-10-30