ABSTRACT Every day approximately 34,000 people are held in immigration detention centers across the United States, including asylum seekers fleeing persecution and violence. Yet they are often invisible in our public discourse about immigration and mass incarceration. For the Humanities Action Lab’s States of Incarceration traveling exhibition, students at Rutgers University–Newark researched a “riot” that occurred at a New Jersey detention center in 1995. To center the voices of the detainees, we used the technique of reading against the grain, or interpreting documentary evidence to gain information counter to the perspective of the original creators, with news articles, photos, and legal depositions. This article discusses difficulties finding archival information about immigration detention and using the practice of reading against the grain to emphasize the agency of detainees, developing a practice of use to museum professionals eager to contend with contemporary social issues when there are few or compromised sources.

中文翻译：

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逆向阅读，寻找被拘留者的声音

摘要 每天约有 34,000 人被关押在美国各地的移民拘留中心，其中包括逃离迫害和暴力的寻求庇护者。然而，在我们关于移民和大规模监禁的公开讨论中，它们往往是隐形的。在人文行动实验室的“监禁状态”巡回展览中，罗格斯大学纽瓦克分校的学生研究了 1995 年发生在新泽西拘留中心的“骚乱”。为了集中在押人员的声音，我们使用了逆向阅读的技巧，或通过新闻文章、照片和法律证词解释文件证据以获取与原始创作者观点相反的信息。