Magda Mankel looks at immigration from a unique perspective, not only because her mother was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States, but also because she is a major in the UA School of Anthropology who is fascinated with human migrations. 

Last summer, Mankel spent six weeks in Arivaca, Ariz., which is about one dozen miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. There, she conducted research with a team of anthropologists and archaeologists led by Jason De León of the University of Michigan.

The team slept in tents, hiked every morning, gathered information and artifacts, and finished their work no later than noon each day due to the dangerously oppressive heat.

“We would wake up at 4 a.m., go hiking, go to these remote desert environments, look for migrant sites and record things from an archaeological perspective,” Mankel said. “We would use total stations (modern surveying instruments), rummage through belongings that we would find and record all of this as a way of creating inventory of the artifacts being left behind by migrants.”

Today, Mankel focuses on what she believes generations of anthropologists will be studying in the future. By finding and cataloguing immigrants’ discarded and deserted belongings – including the range, such as family photos and empty coolers – she expects to grasp not only the hardship of their journey across a vast desert, but better understand whhat led them to take it in the first place.

“Most of my research has focused on undocumented migrants coming from Mexico and making their way into the U.S., through remote desert environments in Southern Arizona.,” Mankel, a UA senior, said. “I’ve looked at that phenomenon from both a sociocultural perspective and an archaeological perspective, because people are leaving behind artifacts, things like backpacks and water bottles, and all things that are essentially material culture."

She noted that archaeologists are  interested in the kinds of technology and tools people utilize during migration. But she also emphasized the importance in understanding such journeys from a socio-cultural perspective, saying that "these people have stories, they have insights, and things that are important to talk about, especially today, when immigration is such a highly politicized topic.”

Next year, Mankel will begin work toward a doctoral degree in anthropology at University of Maryland, College Park having received a scholarship to continue researching diasporas, a subject she believed has far-reaching significance.

“Anthropology is really a broad field. Usually people ask me, ‘What are you going to do with that?’  Well, in fact there’s lots of jobs," Mankel said. "There’s humans everywhere. Anthropology is essentially the study of humanity, so you can make that applicable to pretty much anything.”

During her time at the UA, Mankel has had mentors, including associate professor of anthropology Diane Austin, an associate research anthropologist for the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, and anthropology professor T.J. Ferguson, who encouraged her to continue paving her own way by following in the footsteps of others. 

"If I were to work at a university I could continue doing research and also I could work with students and be a mentor, help students formulate their ideas and then also keep progressing, keep contributing to this field," Mankel said.

Mankel also sees her research as a way to offer fellow human beings a voice by reporting on their plight and hopes that such work will one day stretch beyond politics and speak to a broader human experience.

“As anthropologists we’re academics, but we also want to incorporate the perspectives of the people we are working with into our work, so that it’s not just a top down approach,” she said. “We want to give a voice to the people we’re working with, and create a more grass roots approach to our work.”

Photos courtesy of Magda Mankel