Bulletin

Eric Popkin, associate professor of sociology
Eric Popkin’s unique community-based learning approach gives students an inside look at immigration issues that are top headlines today. In Summer 2018, Popkin took 10 CC students to immigrant detention centers in Georgia, where they worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative. Students conducted background research and interviews with immigrant-detained clients, often in Spanish. The SPLC has praised the work of Popkin’s students, who supported the SPLC attorneys. This innovative arrangement where undergraduate students work directly with the SPLC’s attorneys and detained immigrants through the SIFI program is the only such program in the United States. Actually engaging in the work, and speaking with attorneys and detainees, leads students to more sophisticated insights about tough subjects. They gain hands-on experience and contribute to a project that is legally representing immigrants in detention.