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ARTS, CULTURE & MEDIA

Art Beyond Borders
Representing Identities in a Transnational World
A film by the Transnational Studies Initiative
Jessica Hejtmanek and Peggy Levitt

A sea change has transformed migration scholarship in the last two decades. Most scholars now recognize that many migrants maintain ties to their home countries at the same time that they become incorporated into the places in which they live. They continue to invest, support political candidates, and raise families in their homelands while they buy homes and join community organizations where they settle. By belonging in several places at once, migrants redefine the boundaries of belonging and create new kinds of membership and citizenship, dramatically transforming the contours of social experience.

The creative arts reflect these shifts. To explore how the relationship between art and society changes when social life no longer stays within national boundaries, the Transnational Studies Initiative organized a series of public events in the Boston area in the spring of 2007. Three artists—Giles Li, a Chinese-American spoken word artist; Samina Ali, an Indian Muslim writer; and Miguel Luciano, a Puerto Rican visual artist—were invited to speak about their work and how it reflects the intersection between art, identity, and homeland. These conversations are the core of this film, addressing not only the relationship between art and identity, but also speaking to the role of art and culture in social change.

Peggy Levitt and Deborah Pacini-Hernandez formulated the original project and raised money from the Rockefeller Foundation to support it. Shilpa Dave and Jean Wu later joined the steering committee which organized the speakers’ series and helped recruit the students and faculty who participated in it. Peggy conducted the interviews with each artist that are featured in this film. Shilpa, Min Song, and Luis Aponte facilitated the public conversations between the artists and audiences. After Jenny Alexander and her colleagues filmed these encounters, Peggy, Jessica, and Jenny worked together to conceptualize how these materials could be represented in film. Jessica produced and directed the film with assistance from Jenny.

We hope this film serves as a resource for educators and organizations working in a range of disciplines—from politics, social studies, citizenship, immigration, art, identity, power, place and politics. We would be happy to hear your impressions of our work and how you have incorporated it into your teaching and practice. We hope to continue this conversation with you.

To order more copies of the film, or to contact the Transnational Studies Initiative, please contact Peggy Levitt.

Peggy Levitt is an associate professor of sociology at Wellesley College and co-director of the Transnational Studies Initiative. Jessica Hejtmanek is the program manager of the Transnational Studies Initiative.

The Transnational Studies Initiative is based at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Hauser Center for 
Non-Profit Organizations. This project was generously supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.


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The Transnational Studies Initiative


The Transnational Studies Initiative (TSI) explores the forms and consequences of transnationalism from a variety of analytical, normative, and practical perspectives. Our goal is to compare social dynamics and relations that cross borders and boundaries and to think through their consequences for theory and practice. Our long term objective is to build a field of transnational studies that links scholarship and practice across a range of disciplines and fields.

The initiative is directed by Tamara Kay, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Harvard University; Sanjeev Khagram, an Associate Professor of Public Affairs and International Studies at the University of Washington and Wyss Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Business School; and Peggy Levitt, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College and a Research Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University. For more information about TSI please contact Peggy Levitt.