AAA Public Education Initiative on Migration Featured at Smithsonian Folklife Festival

July 5, 2016

AAA Public Education Initiative on Migration
Featured at Smithsonian Folklife Festival

World on the Move: 100,000 Years of Human Migration,  the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) latest public education initiative, will be showcased as part of On the Move: Migration and Immigration Today, a series of workshops being presented at the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival from June 29 through July 7 on the National Mall.

Conversations about migration and immigration often focus more on ideology and rhetoric than on actual experiences. Through World on the Move: 100,000 Years of Human Migration, the AAA is trying to change the conversation by helping people understand how we all create borders in our lives with attitudes and misconceptions of “the other.”

AAA staff and volunteers will use structured scenarios to help Folklife Festival visitors reflect on and embody the experience of migrants, asking visitors to consider what mechanisms, tools, and resources they would use to cope in a new community. The event is being held in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution and its partners, including the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Basque Library of the University of Nevada, Basque Museum and Cultural Center, National Museum of American History, Radio Bilingüe, and others.  

Workshops scheduled over the course of the festival will address different elements of the migration experience including:

• Objects on the Move: What would you take with you if you suddenly had to move?
  June 29 at 1:00 p.m. and July 7 at 2:00 p.m.
   
• Families on the Move: If you were to move, how would you cope with your new surroundings?
  July 1 at 3:00 p.m. and July 9 at 1:00 p.m. 

View the full workshop schedule for On the Move here.

World on the Move: 100,000 Years of Human Migration is designed to offer people a chance to pause and rethink their ideas about migration, displacement, and belonging. To learn more about the initiative visit www.understandingmigration.org.

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Founded in 1902, the American Anthropological Association, with almost 10,000 members, is the world’s largest professional organization of anthropologists. The Association is dedicated to advancing human understanding and tackling the world’s most pressing problems.