Abigail Andrews
Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, University of California, San Diego
Chapter Member: San Diego SSN
Areas of Expertise:
About Abigail
Andrews is Director of the Mexican Migration Field Research Program at the University of California-San Diego. She is a leader in collaborative; community-action research at the US-Mexico border. Her research focus is state violence; gender; and grassroots advocacy among migrants from Mexico and Central America. Andrews also looks at how to forge spaces of regeneration and joy amidst climate & refugee crises. She is committed to training Latinx students as the next generation of US leaders; and integrates students directly into collaborative; applied; and trauma-informed research to make the world more just for migrants.
Contributions
In the News
Opinion: "In Mexico, Women Can Take Increased Roles in Local Politics in Response to the Crisis’ of Migration to the U.S.," Abigail Andrews, LSE’s Daily Blog on American Politics and Policy, July 7, 2014.
Opinion: "When Migration is Crisis, ‘It is the Women Who Run Things'," Abigail Andrews, Gender and Society Blog, July 7, 2014.
Publications
"Women’s Political Engagement in a Mexican Sending Community: Migration as Crisis and the Struggle to Sustain an Alternative" Gender & Society 28, no. 4 (2014): 583-608.
Argues that in migrant-sending communities, members may see migration as a “crisis” threatening to push them into an excluded, low-wage underclass and in response, may become politically active – and women in particular may take new public roles – as a means to salvage their communities and sustain their way of life.
"Downward Accountability in Unequal Alliances: Explaining NGO Responses to Zapatista Demands" World Development 54 (2014): 99-113.
Examines how the Zapatista Movement was able to elicit “downward accountability” from its NGO supporters, pushing them to follow its agenda even as it depended on the NGOs for funds. Argues that social influence within an international social movement can help tie NGO legitimacy to downward accountability, despite imbalances of economic power.
"Patriarchal Accommodations: Women’s Mobility and Policies of Gender Difference from Urban Iran to Migrant Mexico." (with ). Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 43, no. 2 (2014): 148-175.
Argues that in the face of economic globalization, patriarchal states may adapt by expanding gender differences and restrictions into the public sphere. Discusses how these “patriarchal accommodations” – policies that appear to extend patriarchy – may allow women greater mobility, extending acceptable femininity into new spheres of movement and public life.
"The Quiet Insubordination of Staying Home: Rethinking Women who ‘Stay Behind'" in Globalización y Migración/Inmigración: Políticas Migratorias y Desarrollo Social, edited by Moreno Mena (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, 2013).
Argues that women who live in migrant sending communities are not necessarily “left” behind but may elect to remain in their hometowns for the quality of life it offers, including autonomy as workers, time with their children, and tranquility, particularly when women have negative experiences as migrant workers.