Written by Cassidy Colbert<\/p>\n
For Dr. Kathy Dillion, associate professor of English, the word \u201cimmigrant\u201d hits home. Dillon spent the last three summers working with immigrants in Russia, Germany and, most recently, Lebanon. For the last five or six years, she has taught a unit called \u201cImagining the Immigrant\u201d in her composition classes. At home and abroad, Dillion continues to challenge her students to perceive \u201cimmigrant\u201d in a new light.<\/p>\n
Dillion said she was inspired to find a more personal understanding of immigration after teaching from John J. Savant\u2019s article \u201cImagining the Immigrant: Why legality must give way to humanity.\u201d Savant suggests that \u201cimagination is centripetal, a disciplined contemplation of reality that takes us beneath appearances and into the essence of what we contemplate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because she was teaching on the subject of immigration, Dillion said she decided to take Savant\u2019s words as a personal conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am teaching my students to imagine the immigrant, I need to imagine the immigrant more,\u201d Dillion said, \u201cI just went to look for myself and to learn for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dillion initially began her research of \u201cimagining\u201d 13 years ago in Egypt, where she made connections with immigrants to the country that she has maintained since. This summer, Dillion travelled to Lebanon to continue expanding her perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis summer \u2026 I was more intentional about what I was doing,\u201d Dillion said. \u201cI did not go with any organization. I just wanted to see what it would be like to live in a house with immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Lebanon, Dillion lived in a small village along with an individual she met on her trip to Egypt years before. Though she had her own area in the village, she lived next to refugee families from Syria and Bangladesh. With the help of their sponsor, the families in the village lived rent-free, but were responsible for maintaining the facilities. Dillion said living within an immigrant community brought her a meaningful realization.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, week or visit, I still have an American passport and have the ability to go back. They don\u2019t,\u201d Dillion said. \u201cEven though I was living in the same house as them, I still could not even imagine having to think that I do not have any place to go.\u201d<\/p>\n