Children Seeking Asylum: Creating Digital Media to Support Human Rights
A HumanitiesX Course Showcase
This online showcase is part of a series designed to capture the work of the 2021–22 HumanitiesX cohort at DePaul University. In Spring 2022, three teams of HumanitiesX Fellows created three unique project-based courses. See the other courses’ showcase posts here.
The Course
In Children Seeking Asylum: Creating Digital Media to Support Human Rights, students learned both about the asylum-seeking process and about how to professionally create digital media content. The course was taught by DePaul Social Work Professor Dr. Maria Ferrera and Art Professor Chi-Jang Yin, in collaboration with their community partner, Dr. Minal Giri of the Midwest Human Rights Consortium (MHRC).
MHRC is an all-volunteer Chicago-based organization that trains medical and psychological professionals to conduct forensic medical interviews with asylum seekers. Students learned about the systems that affect asylum seekers by interviewing professionals in MHRC’s network, including lawyers, physicians, and social workers. They video-recorded these interviews and then edited the footage to create a series of new videos for MHRC’s website.
The interdisciplinary approach gave students a practical understanding of the complexities of the US asylum process, while also giving them the chance to highlight the work that MHRC does to help asylum seekers.
The Course Project
A core part of the course were the nine in-class interviews that the students conducted with professionals affiliated with MHRC. In these interviews, students took the lead, both asking most of the the questions and helping ensure quality audio and video recording. Their questions reflected professionalism, interest, and a desire to learn from those they interviewed.
After the interviews, students worked in 2- or 3-person teams, with each team creating two digital media projects that creatively addressed one of three questions:
- “What impact does MHRC make?”
- “Why is the work of MHRC and assisting children in seeking asylum important?”
- “What services does MHRC provide?”
In the first project, students focused on the audio from their interviews, reviewing interview transcripts and arranging clips into coherent audio stories. Students learned about audio editing techniques, using Adobe Audition and Adobe Premiere Pro. Focusing on the audio also allowed students to better understanding the interview content and to identify themes from these interviews.
The second project asked students to turn these audio stories into videos for MHRC’s new website. Each team refined their initial audio and added visuals, learning about video editing techniques using Adobe Premiere Pro.
You can see the students’ finished videos on Vimeo.
What the Students Said…
Students’ comments about the course demonstrate the value of its engaged and project-based approach:
“Especially through the several professionals that spoke with the class, I got to hear about how they have navigated the moral / ethical dilemma of how to highlight immigrant experiences and assist immigrants in ways that are compassionate, transformative, enlightening, and insightful — not exploitative.”
“I learned about the elaborate networks of professionals behind the work of executing clinical evals for asylees, and the ways in which professionals of different expertise collaborate to produce this work, in ways that strengthen their own individual practices.”
“I learned about important federal laws that we should all be more aware of, such as Title 42 and MPP, and what they have meant for immigrants and particularly asylum seekers. Oh, and that brings me to how I learned the differences between refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers!”
“I learned a lot about the gaps in our system. I already knew about adult experiences in immigration, but I didn’t grasp how unjust the realities were for minors. It feels unfathomable. I also learned a lot about how orgs and pro bono professionals are working to stand in those gaps. It gives us a direction of how we can push for legislation reform and advocate for change.”
“This class went above and beyond to ensure that the students engaged thoroughly with the provided course material. The interaction with real-world experts through conducting presentations and interviews was complemented by the opportunity to give students a creative means of expressing the material.”
The Course Team
Dr. Maria Joy Ferrera is an Associate Professor in DePaul’s Department of Social Work and Co-Director for the Center for Community Health Equity, a partnership between DePaul and Rush University to promote health equity. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she is the Co-Founding Co-Chair of the The Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health (CIMH). Dr. Ferrera is also a Steering Committee Member of The Midwest Human Rights Consortium (MHRC), and conducts pro bono mental health forensic asylum assessments.
Associate Professor Chi Jang Yin’s research examines the cultural foundations of nuclear power and US gun violence, with a particular focus on the use and misuse of media to shape both bias and understanding. Her expertise in experimental cinema, observational documentary, cinéma vérité, ethnographic films, and digital photography informs a diverse body of award-winning work that has been recognized internationally in galleries, exhibitions, and film festivals. Her teaching includes, but is not limited to, media art courses, such as film production, film theory, photography and media critical theory.
Dr. Minal Giri M.D. received her BA and MA in Humanities from The University of Chicago. This lens grounded in the humanities has stayed with her as she pursued medicine and continues to inform her practice as a Pediatrician and Medical Director of Melrose Park Pediatrics. She has conducted hundreds of medical forensic evaluations that served as affidavits on behalf of children and families seeking asylum, and has shared her learning in articles, speaking engagements, and trainings about trauma- informed pediatric care and conducting medical asylum assessments. She is the Co-founder and Chair of the MHRC and Founder and Chair of the Refugee Immigrant Child Health Initiative of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Emerson Sherbourne is a graduate student in the Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Master’s program at DePaul University. They have a BA in Humanitarian Studies and Spanish Language and Literature from Fordham University.
Laura Pachón is a graduate student pursuing her Master’s degree in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies at DePaul University. She holds a BA in International Relations with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Lessons Learned
From Prof. Ferrera:
DePaul students have amazing skills and talents that are often hidden and untapped. This project-based service-learning course allowed us to witness their skills and talent, as well as their compassion and will to do good in the world. When given the opportunity and space, students can make significant contributions. The level of teamwork and collaboration, creativity, and social- justice oriented work the students engaged in resulted in meaningful films that bring to light a humanitarian perspective of asylum seekers and promote the mission-centered work of the community partner organization, MHRC. I learned so much from them and their perspective in this process.
My colleagues/co-instructors are phenomenal at what they do and collaborative teaching is an incredibly enriching experience. I learned from Dr. Yin the art of filmmaking and just how involved it is, as well as how powerful a vehicle digital media can be in promoting human rights. I learned from Dr. Giri her perspective on asylum medicine as a pediatrician and humanitarian, and I have been inspired by the remarkable passion and commitment she brings to her work. Together, we developed the learning goals and structure of this course, faced unanticipated challenges, and navigated the evolving needs of the students. I will certainly use what I have learned from them in future courses.”
From Prof. Yin:
“My takeaways about project-based learning in film courses from this experience are three-fold: 1) to provide the opportunity for students to interact with real-world experts by inviting the community partners to present to and be interviewed by the whole class, 2) to integrate a range of guest speakers, whose expertise will directly lead to experience-based learning for students, 3) to have clear and reasonable expectations about project outcomes and ensure the students’ are engaged thoroughly with the provided course material.”
From Dr. Giri:
“I was so impressed by the students — their curiosity, thoughtfulness and sensitivity. Explaining a complex legal asylum system while talking about people’s suffering is a challenge. In their final projects, the students conveyed a depth of understanding of the subject matter in all its nuances. Many were greatly touched by the subject matter and the work of MHRC.
Personally, it has been refreshing to see things through the students’ perspective. For me, this is old. I’m constantly replaying this; in human rights work we often become hardened to the atrocities and abuse we witness. The students’ questions and comments reignited my own commitment to the work. Their fresh consternation at the injustices of our immigration system — ‘Are you serious? That’s allowed? How is that ok?’—reminded me of what we are fighting for: justice for all.
I learned so much working with Drs. Yin and Ferrera. It was a privilege. Teaching is a process and I had no idea how much work was involved. I have renewed appreciation for my undergraduate and graduate professors in the humanities. I was invigorated by the experience from start to finish!”
Next Steps
Professor Maria Ferrera plans to apply for an undergraduate research assistant program (URAP) or other internal grant to enable one or more of the students from this class to do additional video editing work. The four student films made in the course will benefit from additional editing for consistency and polish, and the class interviews hold so much valuable insight that 2–3 more videos can be made from the footage.
Prof. Ferrera and community partner Dr. Giri continue to collaborate. Following their recent co-authored piece in the AMA Journal of Ethics entitled, “What Should Count as Best Practices of Forensic Medical and Psychological Evaluations for Children Seeking Asylum?”, the pair’s grant application to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Fellowship program has been selected as a semifinalist. They hope to conduct mixed-methods research around best practices in conducting forensic asylum medical and mental-health assessments.
Professor Yin plans to apply lessons learned from this course to re-envision her course, “The Gun Culture,” for spring 2023. She plans to redesign the course content to integrate project-based learning. Working in collaboration with DePaul’s Gun Violence Research Collaborative, she will integrate a range of guest speakers that will lead to a web-based project created by the students. She hopes to apply for a Competitive Instructional Grant to support this redesign.
Read More
Emerson Sherbourne, HumanitiesX Students Speak About Community Engagement (Medium, June 22, 2022)
Laura Pachon, Interdisciplinary Migration Summit Highlights Immigrant Integration (Medium, May 18, 2022)
Laura Pachon and Emerson Sherbourne, Legal Obstacles for Asylum-Seekers Too Often Overlooked (Medium, April 21, 2022)
