Mónica Salmón, 2015-2016 President Néstor Kirchner Fellow, successfully completed her two week stay in New York

The New School · New York

Within the framework of the President Nestor Kirchner (PNK) Fellowship sponsored by the Observatory on Latin America (OLA) and the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM) in Argentina, Mónica Salmón Gómez, from Mexico, successfully completed a two-week academic exchange at The New School in New York.

Mónica Salmón Gómez holds a MA in International Relations from Universidad de Guadalajara, México and she currently works in Ecuador supporting refugee’s in their request for asylum. Her academic research as well as her social work is focused on strengthening transnational advocacy networks that focus on the defense and protection of the Human Rights of migrant populations.As part of her activities Monica presented the results of her work on a Seminar addressed to a diverse audience from The New School, that included faculty and students. In addition, and key to the activities of the Fellowship, she met individually with academics and practitioners in her field.

Seminars with The New School Community

Monica was required to present her work during one closed-door seminar with New School faculty and students. These exchanges are opportunities for the Fellow to receive detailed feedback on their ongoing research but also to introduce their topic from a new perspective.
On February 23rd 2016 Mónica presented her work during a closed door Seminar attended by New School professors Michael Cohen, Alexandra Delano and Raul Rubio. They were joined by Masters and PhD students from the programs in Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Urban Policies, International Affairs and Political Science. During the seminar Mónica highlighted her work and research on transnational advocacy networks (TANs) for migrants in transit in Mexico. She emphasized how TAN’s have the “political mission” to hold the government accountable for its actions, or lack thereof, toward migrants.

Interviews and Visits in New York

Mónica spent most of her time meeting with experts in the fields of migration and human rights. This allowed her to expand her network and most importantly to introduce her topic the way it is perceived and experienced within the region itself. Even though migration, and especially Mexican migration to the U.S, is a much expanded topic little is known about the processes that accompany this flows. In this sense, Monica’s work draw a lot of attention from the experts as she introduced a less known subject of the broader migration theme.

She held individual meetings with Columbia Professor Saskia Sassen, with migration expert Robert Smith from the CUNY Graduate Center, and Alyshia Galvez from Lehman College. She also met with New School’s President, David Van Zandt, and with Milano School of International Affairs Dean, Michelle Depass, as well as with Milano Professor Aida Rodríguez. In addition, prior to her Public Lecture she attended a preparatory Workshop with UNSAM professor Lucas González.

She also attended conferences about immigration such as “ARC and Immigration” at CUNY and “Transnational Ethnography” at The New School.

Key to Monica’s activities in the framework of the Fellowship, was the opportunity to visit and engage with the work of non-profit and civil society organizations who are currently involved in transnational advocacy work. She met with the directors of centers such as Mano a Mano, Qualitas for Life, Catholic Migration Services, Women Refugee Center and the Central American Refugee Center. As this centers are wide spread across NYC she was able to see different facets of the city’s organizations and migrant populations. In addition she was invited to attend court hearings so she could see how migration laws work in the U.S.

The culmination of her visit was her presentation during her Public Lecture which took place on March 2^nd 2016 at The New School. She was introduced along with our Cuban Fellow Laneydi Martinez, by New School’s for Public Engagement Executive Dean, Mary Watson. For more information about the public lecture, the presentation and comments click here.

+ View/download Mónica’s slideshow presentation