The Renewing a Human Rights Agenda webinar series explores the opportunities and challenges the nation and the new administration face regarding issues with human rights implications both in the United States and abroad. In this webinar, speakers will explore the challenges with the current immigration policy and the path forward for migrant justice. Speakers include Jessica Bolter of Migrant Policy Institute, Erica Johnson of Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice and Lina-Maria Murillo of the University of Iowa Departments of History and Gender Women and Sexuality Studies.
Join the webinar at the following link: https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/94839769875
- All webinars are free and open to all
- No need to register in advance of the webinar
- A few days after each event, the webinar recording will be posted to the UICHR Youtube channel
Speaker profiles
Jessica Bolter is an Associate Policy Analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at Migration Policy Institute (MPI). Her research focuses on migration patterns at the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration enforcement, and asylum and refugee issues. She also works across programs on Latin American migration policy, particularly on regional responses to Venezuelan migration and extracontinental migration. Ms. Bolter holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies and Spanish area studies from Kenyon College, where she focused on relations between the United States and Latin America.
Erica Johnson is the Founding Executive Director of Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice. Erica directed AFSC Iowa’s Immigrant Rights Program from 2017-2020. She has advocated for immigrant rights for more than a decade and has a diverse background in organizing meat-packing plant workers and statewide coalition partners, as well as providing direct assistance for immigrant victims of crime. From coordinating mega-marches for humane immigration reform in Washington DC to building local, congregation-based approaches to address human trafficking and domestic violence, her work is driven towards positive, systemic changes at the local, state and federal levels. Erica holds a MPA from Drake University in Des Moines and a BA in Psychology and Spanish from North Park University in Chicago. She is a native Iowan who has lived and worked in Latin America and Chicago for several years.
Lina-Maria Murillo is an Assistant Professor in the University of Iowa Departments of History and Gender Women and Sexuality Studies. Professor Murillo received her doctorate in Borderlands History at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2016. She received her M.A. in 2011 from UTEP and her B.A. in History and Raza Studies from San Francisco State University in 2007. Professor Murillo teaches course on the history of social movements, and the history of Latina/o/x Immigration, among other subjects. Her scholarship focuses on the intersections of reproductive freedom, race, gender, class, and sexuality, as well as immigration and Latina/o/x subjectivities. In 2021, Professor Murillo received the James N. Murray Faculty Award.