Experts on countries of origin by country

Danielle Annoni is an associate professor of International Law and Human Rights at the Federal University of Parana (UFPR-Brazil), where she coordinates the Human Rights Observatory and Legal Practice in Human Rights and Migration. She has been conducting human rights research for 18 years. She is an educator, a mother and an active human rights defender, with a focus on migration, gender and the Latin American human rights protection system. Because of her work developed with vulnerable groups regarding the education of labor rights, the empowering of women through handicraft and gastronomy fairs, advocacy in the mediation of cultural conflicts, and access to justice and education, she has received several awards.

I am a Latin Americanist geographer and an expert on Honduras, where I have lived and worked off and on since 1991. My PhD is from Louisiana State University (2001), Master's from University of Texas, and B.A. from Penn State. I have taught in several universities in the US and China, and am currently an independent consultant. I am an an author on over 50 professional publications and have given around 100 presentations, many related to Honduras. My main contributions to the academic literature include the historical and spatial dimensions of land- and identity-based conflicts in Honduras, relationships between people and the environment (particularly ethno-ornithology and ethnobotany), and the development of theory for applying the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to research in the social sciences. In addition to publishing, I consult to community groups in Honduras and Mexico on a range of topics related to environmental and social struggles.

I have served as a country of origin expert for Honduras since 2001 in a total of 13 cases, for all of which I have prepared reports based on original ethnographic research. All of the cases I have worked on involved Hondurans in the US seeking asylum, withholding of removal, or relief under the Convention Against Torture.… Read more

Dr. Harding earned a Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Miami with specializations in Latin American Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, and International Relations. His major professor and dissertation chair was the late Dr. Enrique Baloyra, a renowned Cuba-born scholar. Dr. Harding has held full-time academic appointments in Virginia, Alabama, and most recently Georgia, where he is the Professor of Political Science at Valdosta State University. He is the author of three books and several book chapters as well as over a dozen journal articles. Dr. Harding has been an invited presenter on Latin American politics in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. He has been a federally recognized asylum expert since 2018, working for asylum attorneys throughout the United States as well as the UK and and the Netherlands.

The Expert has expertise on forced displacement and migration in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean and the links with gang violence, organised crime and corruption in the region. For the last ten years they have conducted academic and professional research on migration and internal displacement linked to violence, criminal groups and impunity in Central America and Mexico and on human trafficking in the broader region of Latin America and Caribbean, making several fieldwork trips and authoring NGOs reports and academic articles. I also have expertise in gender issues in the region, including gender-based violence, LGBTQ+ discrimination and hate crimes, and access to abortion and reproductive rights.

Jordan Levy is a sociocultural anthropologist with a research program focused on state formation, political culture, and out-migration in Honduras. He has been studying Honduras and conducting non-governmental (NGO) work in the country since 2001. He was present during the 2009 military coup, and has since studied how these events polarized Honduran society and have increased different forms of violence. 

Dr. Levy's doctoral dissertation focused on the political activism of schoolteachers and post-coup policies of governance. During the course of conducting ethnographic research inside Honduran schools he learned a great deal about Hondurans' experiences with violence – including gang violence and gender-based violence. At the University of Connecticut he teaches courses on contemporary Latin America, and the Anthropology of Migration.

Dr. Talia Mills received her PhD from King's College London in Geography and Master of Science from the London School of Economics in Gender, Development and Globalization. Her research focuses on the multiple forms of gendered violence that intersect across the displacement process in Mexico and Central America. She publishes on topics related to such violence including the gendered dimensions of impunity in seeking asylum as well as migrant women's resistance to violence in Mexico. In addition, she is an experienced program and project evaluator with areas of expertise in sexual and reproductive health, gender & climate change, gender-based violence and refugee protection. She works and conducts research in Mexico where she has lived since 2016.   

The Expert is the National Coordinator at Foundacion Scalabrini de Mexico (FSMX) NGO, leading a dedicated team of 50 professionals across Mexico in designing and executing impactful projects focused on migration, human trafficking, and children's rights in Central America. Throughout the years the expert has demonstrated expertise with federal, state, and international entities, including IOM, UNCHR, UNICEF and various embassies. The expert also works as University Professor at Universidad del Valle de Mexico, the expert delivers insightful instruction on strategic planning and international relations. He has held roles at the UNDP and the Consulate General of Mexico in Austin (U.S) which reflect a comprehensive skill set in advocacy, and bilateral relations, making a significant impact in protecting the rights of vulnerable populations.

The Honorable Dr. Debra Rodman is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies and former Director of Women's Studies at Randolph-Macon College. Her areas of expertise are transnational migration, gender and ethnic relations, gender-based violence, and women’s rights. As an anthropology and gender/women’s studies professor, she teaches courses on race, class, and gender, gender and economic development, immigration and refugees, and teaches community-based courses with local refugee resettlement organizations In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Rodman serves as an expert witness in federal immigration court for families fleeing violence and persecution with a focus on women, children, and LGBT individuals.

Debra Rodman has a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Miami, an M.A. in Marine Affairs and Policy from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Florida. Dr. Rodman is a former Fulbright scholar and received additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A fluent Spanish speaker, she has over 20 years’ experience working in Central America and with refugee and immigrant communities in the United States.

Dr. Rodman served in the… Read more

Dr. Sandoval-Cervantes is a cultural anthropologist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He is an UDLAP alum, and obtained his PhD from the University of Oregon in 2016. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). In the Spring 2022 semester, He will be a Visiting Research Fellow at the Animal Law and Policy Program at Harvard Law School where he will be working on his project “Dead Letter”: Animal Law, Activism, and Mexican Politics," which is part of a new research on the animal rights movement in urban Mexico. 

His research interests can be divided into two overlapping sub-fields. The first sub-field includes the anthropology of migration, particularly the analysis of internal and transnational migrations, gender (masculinity and femininity), indigeneity, kinship, and care. The second sub-field includes multi-species ethnography, legal anthropology and the anthropology of social movements, particularly through the study of activism and animal rights in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands.