Dr. Hilary Parsons Dick, associate professor of Historical and Political Studies, participated in “Immigration, Discourse, and Trump’s Border Wall” on Anthropological Airwaves, a podcast produced by the American Anthropologist journal.

Dr. Parsons Dick addressed the roles and responsibilities of anthropologists in the public sphere. She stressed that President Donald Trump’s “vision of a ‘wall’” is fortifying atrocities that have taken place to secure the Mexico-United States border since the 1980s.

“We’ve been militarizing and profiting off of the degradation of human life along that border for many, many decades now,” said Dr. Parsons Dick. “I get a little frustrated that that can fall out of the conversation. ‘Build the wall’ is the apotheosis of the worst part of our immigration policy, but it’s not new.”