Leandra Pilar Barrett ’15 Studies Immigration Issues

After Leandra Pilar Barrett ’15 finished high school in Alice, Texas, she came to Dartmouth unsure of her long-term goals but knowing the College had many strong academic programs and focused on undergraduates.

Her major—Latin American, Latino & Caribbean Studies—is interdisciplinary, but Barrett is most interested in border studies, race, ethnicity, and the prison system.

“Undergraduate research is so important because it provides the opportunity for learning beyond the limits of the school calendar and curriculum,” she says. “I think research is also a way of leveraging the resources available to colleges and universities in a way that gives back to our community.”

Barrett did fieldwork in her home region of south Texas, studying immigrant detention from the perspective of formerly detained asylum seekers. She conducted three months of fieldwork at a homeless shelter for asylum seekers and other noncitizens. She lived and worked there during the height of the humanitarian crisis in June and July 2014, and again in December 2014.

Read more here.

You can also read about Leandra's presentation at a Harvard Undergraduate Conference in March 2015 here.