The history of immigration in the United States is one of bans, quotas, restrictions, and exclusions. Immigrants have negotiated inconsistent and discriminatory definitions of authorized and unauthorized belonging and targeted restrictions on citizenship since the nation’s founding. This symposium brings together scholars who will illuminate the historical experiences of Asian American, Latinx, African American, Muslim, Jewish, gendered, and sexualized immigrants from the late-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

Matthew Countryman is associate professor of history and American culture at the University of Michigan and author of Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).

Karla Goldman is Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work and professor of Judaic Studies. She is the author of Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism (Harvard Univeristy Press).

Brian Williams is lead bicentennial archivist at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.

Free and open to the public.

This LSA Bicentennial Theme Semester event is presented with support from the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the University of Michigan Bicentennial Office. Additional support provided by Afroamerican and African Studies; American Culture; Anthropology; Arab and Muslim American Studies; Asian, Pacific Islander American Studies; Bentley Historical Library; Comparative Literature; Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies; English Language and Literature; Frankel Center for Judaic Studies; History; Institute for the Humanities; Latino/a Studies; Latinx Studies Workshop; Office of Research; Rackham Graduate School Dean’s Office; Romance Languages and Literatures; and William L. Clements Library.