The First Decade of the US-Mexico Border Wall

This symposium marks the 10-year anniversary of the implementation of the Secure Fence Act and it reflects on the potential expansion and hardening of the physical and political reality of the U.S. border wall. It brings together interdisciplinary panels of expert researchers, scholars, activists, and community members who have studied, documented, and experienced the impacts of this structure.

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6:00-8:00 pm
Jamail Pavilion, UT School of Law
Check-in
Continental Divide: Borderlands Wildlife, People and the Wall Exhibition

Continental Divide is an exhibit of 30 large canvas photo prints that depict the land, wildlife and people of the borderlands of the United States and Mexico, and the impact that construction of a border wall is having on them. The images in the exhibit were taken primarily during a three and a half week expedition with the International League of Conservation Photographers along the 2000-mile border between the United States and Mexico. The expedition included 13 photographers who documented a diverse range of borderlands flora, fauna and cultures.

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8:30-9:00am
Jamail Pavilion, UT School of Law
Coffee and Check-in

9:00-10:15am
Eidman Courtroom, UT School of Law
The State & The Border
Gerald Torres, Cornell Law
Juliet García, UT System
Steve Vladeck, UT Law

10:15-11:30am
Eidman Courtroom, UT School of Law
The Built Wall
Joe Heyman, UTEP
Olivia Mena, UT MALS
Margaret Dorsey and Miguel Diaz-Barriga, UTRGV

11:30-11:45am
Jamail Pavilion, UT School of Law
Break

11:45am-1:00pm
Eidman Courtroom, UT School of Law
More Walls: Carceral Formations & Shifting Migrations
Denise Gilman, UT Law
Kat Rodriguez
María Dolores Paris, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte

1:00-2:30pm
Jamail Pavilion, UT School of Law
Lunch

2:30-3:45pm
Eidman Courtroom, UT School of Law
The Environmental Impact of the Wall
Scott Nicol, South Texas College
David Adelman, UT Law
Melinda Taylor, UT Law

3:45-4:00pm
Jamail Pavilion, UT School of Law
Break

4:00-5:45pm
Eidman Courtroom, UT School of Law
Resisting the Wall: Artistic & Community Reponses
Amelia Malagamba, UTSA
Celeste DeLuna, UTRGV
Alex Soto and Franco Habare, Shining Soul
Miguel Diaz-Barriga and Margaret Dorsey, UTRGV

5:45-6:00pm
Eidman Courtroom, UT School of Law
Closing Remarks