Washington DC: American immigration conference, July 6-31

The National Endowment for the Humanities will sponsor a four-week National History Center summer institute - American Immigration Revisited - based mainly at the Library of Congress, from July 6-31, in Washington DC.

Although I've just learned about this program - and the application deadline was March 2 - I'm informing readers just in case. Occasionally, deadlines are extended, and if you are interested in attending, it will be worthwhile to contact the NEH or keep it in mind for next year if another is scheduled.

Locations will include mainly the Library of Congress, as well as many other museums, sites, archives and centers in the area. Three days will also be spent in New York City, visiting Ellis and Liberty Islands, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Little Italy and other ethnic neighborhoods.

Each week will focus on a major theme through lectures, discussions and workshops: “Migration in the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Global Phenomenon”; “Migrations between Cultures: A Perennial Issue”; “Changes in American Immigration Policy and Law”; and “Doing American Immigration History: Approaches and Resources.”

Directors and faculty of teacher-scholars are experts in immigration history, ethnic studies, women’s studies, and global studies. Attendees will be 25 women and men who teach at two- and four-year colleges, or who work as librarians, archivists or independent researchers and scholars.

The program is looking for representatives of many disciplines, diverse interests, backgrounds and approaches to teaching and learning. Applicants are encouraged from among those who teach survey classes, deal with immigration and also those who teach immigrant and refugee students.

We are looking for collaborative, hard-working people, who are eager to assemble learning resources, create new curricula, produce journal articles, or creative pieces of literature or art during and following our sessions.

Applicants can propose research projects for new interest areas or further research on projects already begun.

We anticipate the projects will cover a wide range, among them: building immigration courses or websites; designing interdisciplinary learning programs focusing on immigration; researching and writing on immigrant workers, artists, entertainers, or storytellers; developing annotated bibliographies on immigration topics; mapping immigrant communities; examining select immigration laws and regulations; studying particular immigrant women’s groups; or investigating the intergenerational differences, tensions, or cultural changes in particular immigrant communities.

The program includes lectures, panels, discussions, informal exchanges, site visits, and a “Tuesday Evening Immigration Film Festival.” Four basic areas will be explored: American immigration as part of a global phenomenon; migrations between cultures; changes in immigration law, policy, and practice; and approaches and resources for teaching immigration history.

Links for immigration resources include the LOC's Immigration: The Changing Face of America, Smithsonian’s museums, and the National Archives.

For more application information, click here.