Hostile Terrain - Civic Engagement

Hostile Terrain 94 is an immersive exhibition featuring approximately 4,000 handwritten toe tags representing migrants who died crossing the Sonoran Desert from the mid-1990s to 2023. These tags are geolocated on a wall map of the Arizona-Mexico border, pinpointing where human remains were found. By writing out the names and information of the deceased, participants are invited to reflect, witness, and stand in solidarity with those who lost their lives in search of a better one.

This exhibit is displayed at over 120 institutions across six continents, aiming to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis at America’s southern border and to foster global conversations about migration.

Spotlight Gallery Installation, April 2025: Hostile Terrain 94 Conversations

The materials exhibited the gallery installation were the culmination of work completed from fall 2024-spring 2025 to raise awareness of the human lives behind headlines about migration. Funded through the Archaeology of Staten Island Endowment and a Project Pericles Faculty Leadership Grant, students, community members, and faculty contributed time, intellectual, and emotional energy to create three components of the display. Most of the work, on the map wall, was the result of Wagner College serving as a host institution for the Undocumented Migration Project’s participatory exhibit, Hostile Terrain 94. On the opposite wall was the work from the documentary project, Nuestro Coro: Speaking Truth, Defying Stereotypes. On the back wall was a mural, Collective Hope. All three components were unique, but were part of the class curriculum for a special intermediate learning community class designed by Professors Celeste Gagnon and Sarah Scott. This class, part of the Project Pericles Faculty Leadership Grant, was entitled The Body and Communities. In this class, 35 students learned together through the disciplines of Anthropology, Art History, and Museum Studies how the human body has been perceived, written about, and displayed from varying perspectives. We discussed how museums and cultural institutions serve essential roles in how we tell stories about our human legacy, how ‘objectification’ in museums extends to our physical bodies, and how multiple communities have a stake in this process. Conversations about decolonization, artifact trafficking, and the ethics of museum display informed further investigation into ways that people and cultures are sometimes dehumanized. The exhibit will be up through summer 2025.

Watch the short documentary about the project here.

How it Works

Volunteers at each hosting location participated in tag-filling workshops (come attend one, see schedule below), writing the details of the deceased and placing the tags on the map. Some tags include QR codes linking to migrant stories and related content, accessible via cellphone.

Learn about the class that was taught spring 2025: Spring Intermediate Learning Community (ILC) class: ‘The Body and Communities’ (AN291, AH/AR 221, HI 240)

During the AY 2024-2025 close to 300 volunteers (students, faculty, staff) participated.

Hostile Terrain 94

The Participatory Exhibit:

Spotlight Gallery Installation, April 2025: Hostile Terrain 94 Conversations

How it Works

Wagner’s Workshop: The Process

Celeste Marie Gagnon

Professor and Division Chair

Sarah J. Scott

Professor

Mobilizing Organizations

Advocacy Groups

Legal Aid