SouthTalks: Undocumented in the US South: How Youth Navigate Racialization in Policy & School Contexts

Overview

Sophia Rodriguez’s book, Undocumented in the US South: How Youth Navigate Racialization in Policy and School Contexts, invites readers into the contested heart of the American South’s public schools. In her talk, Rodriguez will discuss the lived realities of undocumented youth—navigating a landscape of restrictive policies and historical segregation—who transform school hallways and community spaces into sites of resilience and belonging. Through a deep, three-year ethnographic journey, Rodriguez joined students in their everyday struggles, theorizing how youth navigate “racialized citizenship”: a way of surviving and claiming space when state policies and social hierarchies attempt to cast them to the margins. Rodriguez’s work serves as a powerful call to action, urging educators and policymakers to center youth experience as vital knowledge for building humanizing and equitable school practices in the wake of systemic inequality.

Sophia Rodriguez is an associate professor of educational policy studies and sociology at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. A sociologist of education, she conducts research on racial equity, urban education, and immigrant youth advocacy. Her work is grounded in change-oriented ethnography, through which she creates immersive accounts of how community-school partnerships can foster spaces of belonging for minoritized communities. She also directs the ImmigrantEdNext Research Lab.