Miranda Cady Hallett is a long-term resident of upstate New York, having
lived in the Finger Lakes off and on since 1984. Brief stints living
other places include Bard College in the Hudson Valley (1996-1999) as well
as San Salvador, El Salvador (2000-2002) and Fayetteville, Arkansas
(2006-2008). She looks forward to becoming part of the Ithaca College
learning community!
Miranda is particularly interested in the ways that social elites hold on
to positions of power and wealth through ingenious mechanisms, both
material and ideological. For this reason she likes to study elite
cultures and the way that dominant political and media discourses define
certain groups as cultural "others" or even a threat to public safety.
Her past research project include work comparing the US "War on Terror" to
El Salvador's "War on Gangs," legal-historical research on native nations'
land claims in upstate New York, and campaigns for voting rights among
Salvadoran transnational migrants. She has also participated actively in
social justice movements, particularly around refugee issues, prisoner's
rights, and labor justice.
Miranda holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology from Cornell University,
with concentrations in Latino Studies, American Studies, and Development
Sociology. Her doctoral research concerns immigrant communities in rural
Arkansas and the local ramifications of federal immigration policy. She
looks not only at the lived experiences of Salvadoran immigrants, but also
the ways that discourses of the "illegal alien" circulate and take on
specific cultural meanings that justify exclusion and exploitation.
Prof. Hallett is married and has a five-year-old daughter, Delia, who
served admirably as 'research assistant' during her fieldwork. She is
also a card-carrying member of the Tompkins County Worker's Justice
Center.
