Robert Barsky's long engagement with the life and work of Noam Chomsky, recorded in a trilogy of books for MIT Press (Noam Chomsky; The Chomsky Effect; Zellig Harris) began with conversations between Noam and Robert about refugees and migration.

Chomsky's attitude with regards to migrants, and to suffering people, challenges trumped-up ideas about security and threats to our nation. His general approach is also confirmed by those who work on the "front lines" with migrants, most notably public defenders, lawyers and translators, people to whom Robert has devoted his new book, Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law. Robert will describe this general attitude, and offer insights based upon three major research projects relating to the flight and plight of refugees and undocumented migrants in the US and beyond.

Robert Franklin Barsky is a Professor of English and French Literatures, and he is a Professor of Law at the Vanderbilt Law School. He also holds appointments in Jewish Studies, European Studies, and American studies. His work is deeply interdisciplinary, relating to 19th and 20th Century English and French literature, literary theory, immigration, the milieus of Noam Chomsky, the law/literature overlap, and the Americas — writ large.