Background

Migrant deaths continue to be a devastating human crisis across the world. At the US/Mexico Border in Arizona, the terrain and policy function together to facilitate migrant deaths. The Migrant Quilt Project intends to raise awareness about such deaths by showcasing quilts made from migrant clothing that memorialize migrant deaths at the US/Mexico border per year. When approaching this project for my graduate dissertation, I sought to understand how the narratives conveyed through the quilts affected the viewers. My research led to more questions and to understand the limitations of traditional research methods in studying migrant deaths. In the ten years I've been researching the impacts and contributions of the Migrant Quilt Project, my research questions and approaches have shifted and evolved. A few questions that guide this research are as follows:

•  Who are the quilters and how do their design choices tell a story? 

• How can researchers study the contributions of those who they cannot interview or study through artifacts?

• What can researchers learn from information gaps or what cannot be known?

• How can migrant deaths be addressed in the US in a way that can impact migrant deaths worldwide?

Through this research, I’ve learned how to adapt to changing research needs and tools, how to communicate a complex topic to a non-expert audience, and how to connect with an audience about a topic they have little interest in or are unfamiliar with. I’ve presented this research in over 25 community and academic presentations, and I’ve written my findings in award-winning publications. Perhaps the most innovative result of my research is that I continue to quilt and teach quilting as a non-traditional method of presenting research.

Methods 

• Interviews, in person with quilters (10)

• Visual analysis of multiple quilts (5)

• Textual analysis

• Persona Development

• Critical reflection research approaches and quilting processes

Challenges

• Innovative and iterative research process

• Deducing information from gaps in knowledge

• Working with humans: both interviewing quilters and writing about migrants who are not alive to contribute their story

• Human bias in research design, interview responses, and data analysis, particularly around a controversial topic 

• Conveying value of historically undervalued people and things: migrant lives, quilters, feminized labor, quilts, material narratives, non traditional research products 

Impact 

• Awareness of migrant deaths

• Advocating through research publications and presentations

• 3 Research Publications*

• 3 Research Publication Awards* 

• 17 Research Presentations (academic and community)* 

• Forwarding imagination and innovation in research design to understand complex phenomena

*Pertaining specifically to the work around the Migrant Quilt Project