Professor Rebecca Sharpless, associate dean for experiential learning and director of the Immigration Clinic, recently published two articles: “Human Frailty, Unbreakable Victims, and Asylum” with Kristi Wintermeyer, M.D. and “’What is a City but its People’": Commentary on ‘Migration and Peripheral Urbanization: the Case of the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico" by Raul Delgado Wise, Francisco Caballero Anguiano and Selene Gaspar Olvera.
“Human Frailty,” published by Columbia Human Rights Law Review, analyzes the asylum decisions of immigration agencies and federal appellate courts, and demonstrates that the case law driven standard for persecution is out of step with the original meaning of the term, international law standards, and contemporary understanding of how human beings experience physical and mental harm.
The commentary in “What is a City but it’s People,” published by Ethnic and Racial Studies, centers on themes of conquest, globalization, and inequality, and argues that the article “Migration and Peripheral Urbanization: The Case of the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico” can be understood as suggesting prescriptions for forward-looking socio-economic and migration policy.
Professor Sharpless is the founding director of the Immigration Clinic and teaches immigration law. She researches and writes in the areas of immigration law, progressive lawyering, and the intersection of immigration and criminal law.
