Book
Dr. Magaña’s book, Cartographies of Youth Resistance: Hip-Hop, Punk and Urban Autonomy in Mexico, UC Press 2020. Based on nine years of ethnographic fieldwork in Oaxaca, Mexico, this research examines how a network of urban youth collectives emerged out of a popular social movement that took grassroots control of the capital city of the state in 2006. By focusing not just on the spectacular moments of mass mobilizations but also attending to how youth use hip-hop and punk cultures and creative organizing practices to sustain movement activism over time, Cartographies of Youth Resistance provides a window into how we might better understand social movement impact, temporality and spatiality.
Arte Jaguar 2013
Building Transborder Social Movement Communities
Dr. Magaña has also conducted research that looks at the transnational reverberations of the 2006 Oaxacan social movement in the U.S. Specifically, this project is based on twelve months of ethnographic research in Los Angeles, CA with young people who participated in solidarity efforts from abroad and/or were directly involved in the 2006 movement. This includes members of transborder indigenous communities, Chicanx organizers, and immigrants from other parts of Mexico who held solidarity actions to raise awareness about police and paramilitary repression of the movement in Oaxaca, traveling to Oaxaca to participate directly in the movement, and hosting exchanges with Oaxacan activists and artists in California.
Youth, Migration, and the Labor Movement
From 2014-2016, Maurice worked as Program Representative at the UCLA Labor Center where he contributed to the publication of two books. He was a contributing editor on Dreams Deported: Immigrant Youth and Families Resist Deportation, a student publication documenting stories of detention, deportation, and the national movement led by immigrant youth and their families that pressured the president of the United States to act after years of congressional inaction on immigration reform.
In addition, Dr. Magaña also authored a forthcoming publication for the Center that is dedicated to the legacy of labor leader Mike Garcia and the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles. While at UCLA, Maurice also team-taught the innovative service-learning course, Immigrant Rights, Labor and Higher Education which connects students with local immigrant rights and labor movement leaders and trains students to conduct oral histories and original research.
Global Labor Studies Research
Dr. Magaña has also worked on a variety of community and applied research projects examining the role of the labor movement in securing rights for vulnerable workers in South Africa, Honduras, Brazil, Liberia, and Colombia. He has also documented the oft-forgotten history of Latinos in rural Oregon and co-produced a radio show on Portland community radio highlighting the stories of young Latino immigrants living in Oregon.
