After having spent the last two years on the ground at the US-Mexico border, Alice Driver hopes to offer a new perspective to the students of Colorado College. Her upcoming talk on Tuesday Feb. 5 in Gaylord Hall will focus on the humanistic aspect of the migrant caravan, attempting to depoliticize it and show the perspectives of the traveling group.
Growing up in a town of 200 in rural Arkansas, Driver did not begin her career in journalism until after she attained her Ph.D. in Mexico City. Now writing for National Geographic and Time, among other well-known magazines, her work focuses on migration, human rights, and gender equality.
One of the biggest issues she sees in the industry is the “Vice-style” reporting that sensationalizes things like human trafficking, cartels, and overall, bloody violence. These stories are often written by men, are about men, and center on concepts of glory and bloodshed. She commented that “women and the LGBT community can really get lost in that.” By sharing stories of the underrepresented, she is providing the opportunity for her readers to better understand the point of view of migrants.
In her upcoming lecture at CC, she hopes to portray what migration and the border look like firsthand, and to shed light on what the real dangers are. In the era of misinformation. The dangers that have been presented in the media are often not based on reality, based on facts, or research. Most people haven’t been down to the border and they don’t know what it’s like,” Driver said. This deliberate misinformation creates a widespread panic of looming threats that do not even exist.
Driver hopes that by sharing her experiences, she will also be able to educate the community on different aspects that are not normally talked about. One of these issues is the topic of climate change and the effect it has on these communities.
“We tend to think of migrants as other people, but it could be us,” Driver said. “As rising sea levels condense populations and agricultural industries suffer, migration becomes more than escaping socioeconomic situations, but fleeing from a failing environment. Although it’s “something we don’t seem to want to recognize,” it is a situation that may one day heavily affect the United States as well.
The humanistic approach that Driver takes in her journalism and reporting diversifies the argument surrounding the migrant caravan. She hopes to tell the stories of “the 15-year-old girls, or the 11-year-old who lost her leg on the train to Mexico.” By appealing to the sympathies of the masses, she hopes to depoliticize the argument and focus on the people involved.
Alice Driver’s lecture will take place in Gaylord Hall on Feb 5 at 7 pm. With the government having been in its longest ever shutdown, and only temporarily open now for the sake of a border wall, these issues are not to be taken lightly.