James ChaneyMiddle Tennessee State University | MTSU · Global Studies and Human Geography
James Chaney
Doctor of Philosophy
About
9
Publications
1,293
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
58
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I am a geographer at Middle Tennessee State University. I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and I conduct research on the metropolitan area’s immigrant and refugee communities. My research interests include cultural geography, Latin America, transnational approaches to migration scholarship, the role of "place" in the formation and negotiation of identity(ies), and postcolonial studies.
Publications
Publications (9)
The burgeoning Latinx communities in the U.S. South provide rich case studies for examining the identity formation and group consciousness of children of Latin American immigrants. This paper explores the identities and sense of belonging of 1.5-and second-generation Latinxs who have come of age in Tennessee, a Southern state that has experienced a...
This study investigates the perceptions and experiences of 1.5-and second-generation Latinxs in the new immigrant destination of Nashville, Tennessee, with regard to the concepts of belonging, identity, and sense of place. Although much research has examined the arrival, integration, and socioeconomic challenges of Nashville's first-generation immi...
This research aims to cast scholarly light on the burgeoning Somali community in Nashville, Tennessee, by examining the residential patterns of Somali refugees. Using a mixed-methods approach that includes in-depth interviews, focus groups, and volunteer agencies, this study reveals that Somali refugees face particular barriers that directly influe...
This paper examines the understudied, but socially salient significance of transnational social networks in the establishment of new migrant destinations in the American South. By comparing two independent migrant groups — one originating from Guanajuato, Mexico and the other from Honduras and Nicaragua — this research explores the structure, scope...
This article describes experiential-learning approaches to conveying the work and rewards involved in qualitative research. Seminar students interviewed one another, transcribed or took notes on those interviews, shared those materials to create a set of empirical materials for coding, developed coding schemes, and coded the materials using those s...
The multiplicity of Garifuna identity gives the Garínagu the flexibility to negotiate and shift their identity between different ethnic, racial, and national categories. Drawing on in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation with Garifuna transmigrants in post-Katrina New Orleans, this research illustrates the important role a re...
In the past two decades, Nashville, Tennessee has emerged as a new destination for Hispanic immigrants moving into the American South. Many of these newcomers have chosen to reside in the southeast section of the city in neighborhoods adjacent to two main thoroughfares—Nolensville and Murfreesboro Pikes. Residential clustering has fostered the deve...
Projects
Project (1)
This paper examines the understudied, but socially salient significance of transnational social networks in the establishment of new migrant destinations in the American South. By comparing two independent migrant groups — one originating from Guanajuato, Mexico and the other from Honduras and Nicaragua — this research explores the structure, scope, and social dynamics of transnational relationships linking Latino migrants in emerging receiving communities to a host of sending communities. Building upon the concepts of migrant networks and social capital, this multi-sited, in-depth qualitative research with migrants and their families in Latin America reveals the essential role that certain trailblazing agents operating in transnational networks play in creating and maintaining multi-nodal destinations for migrant groups. This approach calls attention to the micro-level social processes, such as gender dynamics, behind shifting migration patterns. Furthermore, these case studies highlight the tactics and assistance that undocumented migrants rely on to reach and find employment in receiving communities and demonstrate the agency that migrants possess to move between destinations in a recipient country. The results of this research contribute scholarly insight into the roles that mobility, informal labor recruitment, gender, and social capital play in the migratory practices of Latinos.
