Luis H. Zayas, 2014 Heyer Lecturer
The 2014 Heyer Lecture, an annual program sponsored by the Office for Academic Affairs and scheduled for Sept. 25, aims to address the changing face of the issue of immigration. Lunch will be provided at the lecture.
"Children have become the face of immigration in Texas over the last few months," said David Jensen, Academic Dean at Austin Seminary. "Their struggles, their plight, their tendency to be caught in between nations and family members are now front page news, yet their faces and situations are still often overlooked in debates over immigration. This year’s Heyer Lecture focuses on the policies that affect these children’s lives today and in the years to come."
With this in mind, Luis H. Zayas, dean of the University of Texas Austin School of Social Work and the author of The Making of American Exiles and Orphans: How Deporting Immigrants Hurts Citizen-Children, will serve as the presenter and address the timely topic.
According to Zayas concerning the national debate about immigration reform and record-level deportations, the plight of children caught in the middle has been overlooked. Now, with tens of thousands of refugee children crossing the border deliberately into the arms of border agents, they cannot be dismissed. Zayas will discuss three groups of children most affected by the aggressive immigration enforcement: undocumented and citizen-children of unauthorized immigrants and unaccompanied immigrant minors. He describes their imperiled developmental trajectories and how the policies decided today will affect our nation’s social, economic, and moral health for decades to come.
Austin Seminary also will be beta testing a live video stream online of Heyer Lecture
“This will be our first opportunity to stream to more than a 12 person test group," said Julie Newton, Director of Information Technology. "We welcome members of our community who can not make to the Seminary campus to be able to spend their lunch hour with the Seminary community wherever they are.”
The process was truly a team effort according to Newton.
“Deborah Hamilton, Learning Technologies Librarian and the IT Department worked together to turn McMillan 210 from a basic classroom to a high-tech recording classroom with the ability to stream real-time audio and video," Newton continued. "The room was designed for the purpose of allowing remote attendees to be able to participate in the on-campus lectures and special events. This has been a multi-step project including budgeting, design, installation, testing, making improvements, and retesting until all the bugs were worked out. It is exciting to see all our hard work come to fruition."
You can register for the 2014 Heyer Lecture and find more information about the live stream as it progresses here.
