| Title | Tango Partners |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | A Migrant Academic’s Fusion of Privilege and Precarity |
| Contributor | Diana Zacca Thomaz(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0508.01 |
| Landing page | http://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0508/chapters/10.11647/obp.0508.01 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Diana Zacca Thomaz |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2026-04-29 |
| Long abstract | We tend to think of “migrant” and “academic” as opposite categories: one stands for precarity and prejudice and the other for privilege and prestige. Going over about ten years of my migrant academic journey across five countries in less than five pages, I try to show in this essay that precarity and privilege are not necessarily opponents locked in a duel. Rather, on the dance floor of a migrant academic’s life, they’re more like tightly embracing tango partners, so entangled that, if you look closely, you may have a hard time telling them apart. |
| Print length | 8 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Diana Zacca Thomaz (PhD) is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her transdisciplinary work looks at the interplay of housing, migration, and citizenship in cities. She explores the disenfranchisement and stigmatization of citizens and noncitizens living at the urban margins as well as their visions for social change. Her PhD research ethnographically studied the lived experiences and claims to rights of Brazilian and migrant squatters forming a fragile coalition in São Paulo, Brazil. She is currently working on an oral history of a bilingual (English and Spanish) tenant organizing initiative in the Southwest Bronx called CASA (Community Action for Safe Apartments).