
Disappearing Rooms
The Hidden Theaters of Immigration Law
Michelle Castaneda(Author)
Duke University Press
Published on 17. March 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-1-4780-1963-3 (ISBN)
Description
In Disappearing Rooms Michelle CastaNeda lays bare the criminalization of race enacted every day in US immigration courts and detention centers. She uses a performance studies perspective to show how the theatrical concept of mise-en-scEne offers new insights about immigration law and the absurdist dynamics of carceral space. CastaNeda draws upon her experiences in immigration trials as an interpreter and courtroom companion to analyze the scenography-lighting, staging, framing, gesture, speech, and choreography-of specific rooms within the immigration enforcement system. CastaNeda's ethnographies of proceedings in a "removal" office in New York City, a detention center courtroom in Texas, and an asylum office in the Northeast reveal the depersonalizing violence enacted in immigration law through its embodied, ritualistic, and affective components. She shows how the creative practices of detained and disappeared people living under acute duress imagine the abolition of detention and borders. Featuring original illustrations by artist-journalist Molly Crabapple, Disappearing Rooms shines a light into otherwise hidden spaces of law within the contemporary deportation regime.
Duke University of Press Scholars of Color First Book Award Recipient
Duke University of Press Scholars of Color First Book Award Recipient
Reviews / Votes
"The book ... is a quintessential one in times of increasing hatred towards immigrants. This timely book will help the reader understand the intensity of immigration crises and the need for the growth of a humanitarian world than a world with borders."- T.S. Gangothri (Social Identities) "Michelle CastaNeda's book Disappearing Rooms... is a tour de force that clearly demonstrates how the study of cultural performance provides an indispensable tool for understanding social performances and everyday life. CastaNeda diagnoses various institutions at the sites of their theatrical manipulations-the disappearing rooms in her title-to show how immigration law, the prison-industrial complex, and even sometimes immigration activists stage these institutional mise-en-scEnes in ways that play into the (in)visibility of carceral power." - Jennifer Tyburczy (Theatre Journal)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
10 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
298 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4780-1963-3 (9781478019633)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Michelle CastaNeda is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at New York University.
Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer based in New York.
Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer based in New York.
Content
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Removal Room: Disappearance and the Practice of Accompaniment 19
2. The Prison-Courtroom: No-Show Justice in Family Detention 56
3. Bring Me the Room: Tragic Recognition and the Right Not to Tell Your Story 91
Coda 129
Notes 135
References 159
Index 177
Introduction 1
1. Removal Room: Disappearance and the Practice of Accompaniment 19
2. The Prison-Courtroom: No-Show Justice in Family Detention 56
3. Bring Me the Room: Tragic Recognition and the Right Not to Tell Your Story 91
Coda 129
Notes 135
References 159
Index 177