John to Host Chambliss Faculty Lecture Oct. 24

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Kutztown University’s Dr. Mauricia John, professor of Sociology, will present her lecture entitled “The Venezuelan Migrant Crisis: Economic and Cultural Implications” during the university’s annual Chambliss Faculty Lecture 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 24, 183 McFarland Student Union (Alumni Auditorium).

John began her career at KU in 2012. She earned her doctorate in rural sociology, as well as a master's degree in environmental and development economics from The Ohio State University. She also completed a Bachelor of Science in economics with a minor in business management from South Carolina State University.

John regularly teaches eight different courses, including Introduction to Sociology, Immigration and Assimilation, Rural Poverty, Globalization and Development, Contemporary Social Problems, Race and Ethnicity, Juvenile Delinquency, and Senior Seminar in Sociology. She serves as the co-advisor for the Sociological Honors Society, Alpha Kappa Delta and founded the International Faculty Caucus at KU, which is the first chapter to be created in the State System.

John is devoted to her teaching, students and scholarship. She has presented her work at the Caribbean Studies Association in Cuba, Haiti, the Bahamas and Colombia. She was also invited to lecture and present her research at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia. She has received approximately $20,000 in funding from KU, which she has used to develop her scholarship.

John's research focuses on the assimilation patterns of Caribbean immigrants in the U.S., specifically examining educational attainment, political engagement, language proficiency and intermarriage among Cuban and Afro-Caribbean immigrants. Her research also investigates racial and ethnic identity among Caribbean immigrants and how racial lines are transformed cross-nationally. More recently, she has extended her work to include a comparative analysis of Cuban and Haitian immigrants, emphasizing both assimilation and transnationalism. In addition to contemporary patterns of migration, she also focuses on human trafficking in the Caribbean, as well as the Venezuelan economic and migrant crisis. She has published her work in Racial and Ethnic Studies, Migration and Development, The International Journal of Human Rights, African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, African Identities, and Teaching in Sociology.

In her lecture, John will focus on the economic and cultural implications of the Venezuelan migrant crisis. She will discuss how exacerbated levels of poverty, crime, hyperinflation and poor governance have all increased the migration of Venezuelans to neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. John will shed light on the cultural transformation of destination countries as well as human trafficking as a by-product of migration. She will also discuss the economic collapse of Venezuela's once-thriving economy and the vulnerability of its citizens who see migration as the only solution amidst poverty and political instability.