Tovares presents paper on the DREAM Act

Associate Professor of Communication Dr. Raúl Tovares presented his paper “Communicating the Politics of Citizenship: Unauthorized Latino Youth and the DREAM Act” at the Maryland Communication Association Convention on Saturday, October 15, 2011 in Frostburg, Maryland. Professor Tovares’s presentation examines how the definition of U.S. citizenship has changed since the founding of the United States of America and how this relates to undocumented Latino youths who have graduated from high school and want to attend college. Building on research by legal and communication scholars, Tovares argues that citizenship is not a fixed but rather a malleable concept that has adapted to demographic, economic, social and political changes.  He goes on to suggest that just as persons once barred from U.S. citizenship — African Americans, Eastern and Southern Europeans, Native Americans, Asians, and others — were eventually given an opportunity to naturalize, so too should undocumented Latino youths.