Kate Swanson
Professor, Canada Research Chair in International Peace, Security and Children
Email: Kate.Swanson@dal.ca
Phone: + 1 902 494 3317
Mailing Address:
Marion McCain Building
6135 University Ave.
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PO Box 15000
Halifax, NS, Canada
B3H 4R2
Office location:
3037 Marion McCain Building
- Migration, asylum and refugees
- Children and youth
- Immigration detention
- Violence and human rights
- Latin America and US/Mexico border
Education:
- B.A. University of Guelph
- M.A. University of Guelph
- Ph.D. University of Toronto
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While I have wide ranging interests in development and critical human geography, I currently focus on youth migration in Latin America and the U.S./Mexico border region. In recent years, I have worked extensively with migrants in Mexican and American immigration detention centres. My research explores issues surrounding youth, rights, inequality, and violence.
My past research includes work concerning: street children, street vendors and beggars; policing and zero tolerance; research ethics and methodologies; identity, power and inequality; pedagogy and geographic education; and environmental policy. My geographic focus is also broad and I have undertaken field research in Honduras, Mexico and Ecuador, as well as China, Vietnam, and Scotland.
Given my current research interests, I welcome students interested in youth, migration, asylum, and/or immigration detention, particularly in Latin America and the US/Mexico border region. However, I am open to other topics as well; please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Books:
Aitken, Stuart C., Kate Swanson, Fernando Bosco and Thomas Herman (Eds.). 2011. New York: Routledge.
Swanson, Kate. 2010. Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation book series. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Swanson, Kate. 2010. Quito: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO)-Abya Yala.
Select Articles and Chapters:
Torres, Rebecca Maria,Kate Swanson,Caroline Faria, Tamara Segura, Sarah Blue. 2022.Bordering through Care and Control: Policing and Sheltering Central American Migrant Youth in Mexico.Political Geography.98: 102719.
Torres, Rebecca Maria, Sarah Blue, Caroline Faria, Tamara Segura,Kate Swanson. 2022.“Asylum is not for Mexicans”: Unaccompanied youth and racio-governance at the US border.Geopolitics.
Ciborowski, Haley M., Samantha Hurst, Ramona L. Perez,Kate Swanson, Eric Leas, Kimberly C. Brouwer, Holly Baker Shakya. 2022. Through our own eyes and voices: The experiences of those “left-behind” in rural, Indigenous migrant-sending communities in western Guatemala.Journal of Migration and Health. Volume 5, 100096,
Delgado, Emanuel and Kate Swanson. 2021. Journal of Urban Affairs. 43: 925-940.
Wood, Lydia, Kate Swanson and Don Colley. 2020. T. ACME. 19(2):424-447.
Swanson, Kate. 2020. Children and young people in Latin America: Inequality, rights and empowerment. Pages 191-206 in , 4th edition. E. Jackiewicz and F. Bosco (Eds.). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Swanson, Kate. 2020. Urban ethnography. Pages 57-73 in , 2nd Edition. Edited by Kevin Ward. London: Sage Press.
Swanson, Kate. 2019. . Journal of Latin American Geography. 18 (3): 176-187.
Askins, Kye and Kate Swanson. 2019. . Emotion, Space and Society. 33. 100617.
Gilliam, Shea Ellen and Kate Swanson. 2019. Gender, Place and Culture. 27: 903-911.
Thompson, Amy, Rebecca M. Torres, Kate Swanson, Sarah A. Blue & Óscar Misael Hernández Hernández. 2019..Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.45:235-252.
Swanson, Kate. 2018. . Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 108: 390-398.
Wood, Lydia, David Kamper and Kate Swanson. 2018. . 50: 137-145.
Swanson, Kate and Rebecca M. Torres. 2016. . Journal of Latin American Geography. 15: 23-48.
Swanson, Kate. 2018. Street vendors in Latin America. J. Cupples, M. Palomina-Schalsch and M. Prieto (Eds.). London: Routledge.
Mackie, Peter, Kate Swanson and Ryan Goode. 2017. Reclaiming space: street trading and revanchism in Latin America. Pages 63-76 in A. Brown (Ed). London: Routledge.
Swanson, Kate, Rebecca M. Torres, Amy Thompson, Sarah Blue and Oscar Misael Hernández Hernández. 2015. . NACLA Report on the Americas.
For more publications, see my profile. If you’d like copies of any of these articles or chapters, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Select Media Coverage:
Moran, Padraig. 2019. How letters from migrants shed light on the 'intolerable' conditions inside U.S. detention centres. CBC News. April 23, 2019.
Pettit, Emma. 2019. ‘Begging to Have Their Stories Told’: San Diego State Professors Create Living Archive of Migrants’ Letters From Detention. The Chronicle of Higher Education. February 13, 2021.
Robbins, Liz. 2019. ‘A Light for Me in the Darkness’: For Migrant Detainees, a Bond Forged by Letter. The New York Times. February 7, 2019.