W&L’s Seth Michelson Quoted in NPR Segment About a Film Documentary The Spanish professor appears as a faculty expert in the film that debuted at the Virginia Film Festival last month.

By Brian Laubscher
November 28, 2023

Seth Michelson, associate professor of Spanish at Washington and Lee University, was recently quoted in a segment on National Public Radio (NPR) promoting the new documentary film “Sometime, Somewhere.”

The film details the stories of Latin American immigrants in Virginia, including the travels of the film’s director, Ricardo Preve, who immigrated to the United States from Argentina. Preve eventually settled in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Michelson is interviewed throughout the film, serving as a faculty expert on immigration. During the NPR segment, which lasts three minutes and 29 seconds, Michelson notes that we should prepare for many more immigrants in the age of climate change.

“People are coming from countries of origin where life is not sustainable,” said Michelson. “Even just looking back to Hurricane Eta and Iota, that put seven and a half million people in motion.”

“Sometime, Somewhere” experienced its world premiere at the Virginia Film Festival on Oct. 28 in Charlottesville, and the film won Preve the prestigious Gerland L. Baliles Founders Award.

A member of the W&L faculty since 2014, Michelson has published 23 books of original poetry and poetry in translation, including the bilingual poetry anthology “Dreaming America: Voices of Undocumented Youth in Maximum-Security Detention.” He founded and directs the Center for Poetic Research, and is the chair of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies and writing seminars from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing (poetry) from Sarah Lawrence College, and he earned both master’s and doctorate degrees in comparative literature from the University of Southern California.

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