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The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, passed in November 2008, raises new funds from a sales tax increase to be divided among projects benefitting the outdoors, clean water, parks and trails, and arts and cultural heritage.
Explore "Virtue and Vice in the Stacks" and the Elmer L. Andersen Library caverns the first friday of every month throughout 2009-2010.
From All Points: America's Immigrant West, 1870s-1952 by Elliott Robert Barkan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. 598 pp. ISBN 978-0-253-34851-7.
The Canadian Committee on Migration, Ethnicity and Transnationalism is a new academic organization created to foster and facilitate collaboration among historians working in this field. Those interested in the history of migrations, ethnicity, transnationalism and related subjects are invited to join the CCMET listserve or visit the web site. (more)
The Wartime Experiences of a Cleveland Czechoslovak Legionnaire: the World War I Diary of Ladislav Krizek by Stephen Sebesta
Rússia - Ascensão e Queda de Um Império - Uma História GeopolÃtica e Militar da Rússia, dos Czares ao Século XXI by João Fábio Bertonha
Friday, October 16, 10:10-12:10, Mondale Hall 55.
The Legal History Workshop will be hosting Christopher Capozzola, Associate Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is currently working on transitional justice, postcolonial citizenship, and war crimes trials in Asia following WWII. Capozzola will be presenting a paper from his current research titled "A Tale of Two Treasons: Adjudicating War Crimes and Collaboration in Manila, 1945."
The Spectrum Trust Foundation of St. Paul, Minn., has awarded Korean Quarterly and Immigration History Research Center a $2,500 grant to support their work to initiate a digital newspaper archive preserving an important Korean-American ethnic publication.
The Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) at the University of Minnesota has awarded two of its most prestigious graduate fellowships: the Francis Maria Graduate Fellowship in Arab American Studies and the American Latvian Association (ALA) Graduate Fellowship in Latvian American Studies.
The Michael G. Karni Scholarship provides up to $850 to support IHRC research about Finnish-American experience. The deadline for the 2010 funding cycle is November 1, 2009.
Recent University of Minnesota graduates Addie Mrosla and Ann Brigl contributed during summer 2009 to the IHRC as a collections intern and public services student assistant, respectively.
Sixteen scholars have been awarded 2009-2010 grants in aid to support travel to and research in the historical collections of the Immigration History Research Center. Award recipients include doctoral candidates, independent scholars, creative artists, and heritage preservation personnel, with topics ranging from gender violence and refugee policies to Greek identity in the American Midwest.
During the spring semester of 2009, the IHRC conducted a processing project that resulted in a new finding aid for the Hitti collection. Student assistant Mary George worked with Daniel Necas to complete the project. The finding aid as well as a new web feature showcasing selected items from the collection are now available on-line. More ...
The 2 volume set Daily Life in Immigrant America 1820-1870 (by James M. Bergquist) and Daily Life in Immigrant America 1870-1920 (by June Granatir Alexander) is being released in soft cover. Readers will find the approach similar to David Kyvig's Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940.
This is the theme of 2009 Friends Annual Meeting which will be held Sunday, November 8, 2009. The meeting will focus on the importance of the census, and in particular its value for documenting ethnic communities. For additional information see http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/pdfs/Friends2009savethisdate.pdf
IHRC Program Director Haven Hawley has been awarded a six-week professional development leave to work on a book-length manuscript titled "Bodice Rippers to Printing Grippers," focusing on printing technologies related to marginalized American publishers in the 19th century.
Edited by Ieva Zake, newly published Anti-Communist Minorities in the U.S., Political Activism of Ethnic Refugees references materials in the IHRC and presents the little known history of anti-Communism and the Cold War in the U.S. from the point of view of émigrés from Eastern and Central Europe, Asia, and Cuba.
New America Media, the nation's first and largest collaboration of ethnic news organizations, honored Lou Ann Matossian, an editor of the Armenian Reporter, at the 2009 National Ethnic Media Expo & Awards in June for excellence in international affairs reporting. Matossian has a long association with the IHRC and currently serves on the Collections Advisory Council.
A new web display featuring the Papers of Edmund Valtman (1914-2005) from the Center's archival holdings is available for viewing. Valtman, born in Estonia, was a cartoonist who immigrated to the U.S. in 1949, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1962. More...
The IHRC is pleased to announce that a multi-year project to catalog ethnic newspapers in the Center's collections has successfully concluded. Technical Services staff of the University of Minnesota Libraries finalized on July 2, 2009, cataloging entries for the IHRC's holdings of 46 Greek through Ukrainian titles.
Please join us in congratulating IHRC Director and History professor Donna Gabaccia who has been named to the Fesler-Lampert Chair in Public Humanities for the 2009-10 academic year.
The Immigration History Research Center will be closed on Friday, June 26, and staff will offer limited researcher services on Thursday, June 25. Other summer closures at the IHRC in Elmer L. Andersen Library include Friday and Saturday, July 3-4, and Monday, September 7.
[Research Note allows researchers to comment on IHRC collections of interest or to make material from IHRC research-in-progress talks available to the public.]
By Justin Schell
The Twin Cities rank alongside Toronto, Los Angeles, London, and New York as a center of global migration, with hip-hop an inescapable and dynamic force in the lives of its newest residents.
The Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) offers grants of up to $500 to assist scholars traveling to conduct research at the IHRC. The deadline for applications for 2009-2010 grants is June 1, 2009.
The IHRC congratulates affiliate Jamal A. Adam on being selected as one of 25 participants for the "American Immigration Revisited" National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute in 2009.
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detain and subsequently deport undocumented workers, what happens to the children of those workers, many of whom were born in the U.S. and, by law, are U.S. citizens? A special panel at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14 titled "America’s Children and U.S. Immigration Enforcement: Is Anybody Looking Out For the Best Interests Of The Children?" discusses this important issue.
The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation announces the opening on March 20 of the exhibition The Journey : The Greek American Dream at the Rooftile and Brickworks Museum N. & S. Tsalapatas-Volos in Greece.
The IHRC and Elmer L. Andersen Library will be open to researchers Monday, March 16 through Thursday, March 19. The building will be closed to researchers on Friday, March 20, which is a university holiday.
Historians from Europe and the United States have often treated North Africa as marginal to the central dramas of the twentieth century. "Placing the Maghrib at the Center of the 20th Century: From Colonial Histories to Post-Colonial Societies" will examine the role of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in the unfolding of the recent past.
IHRC Director Donna R. Gabaccia currently is a Visiting Scholar in the Immigration program of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. In May 2009, she will be a Visiting Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Warwick and participate in an international symposium on diaspora studies.
Racism and xenophobia have long shaped the circumstances under which people emigrate, as well as the opportunities and constraints facing immigrants and their communities. Explore this topic at a presentation and discussion to be held 3-5 p.m. on Friday, March 13, at 120 Elmer L. Andersen Library.
During March 2009, the IHRC welcomes representatives from the National Archives of Estonia (Rahvusarhiiv) to the University of Minnesota as part of an international partnership promoting preservation of and access to Estonian cultural materials.
The IHRC is pleased to announce Kitty Lam as the recipient of the 2009 Michael G. Karni Scholarship. Ms. Lam is a graduate student in the Department of History at Michigan State University. The IHRC will host an informal noon presentation by Ms. Lam on Thursday, February 5, 2009.
The IHRC offers fellowships for University of Minnesota graduate students and grants to scholars outside the Twin Cities to promote research in the Center's collections. Deadlines in 2009 are February 1, May 1 and November 1.
The Immigration History Research Center will host a Society of American Archivists workshop on May 15, 2009, to train ethnic, religious, and other community group members about how to create and maintain their own archives. Please keep reading for registration and scholarship information!
Videos with closed captions from the Global Race, Ethnicity and Migration seminars presented by leading scholars in fall 2007 at the University of Minnesota are now available.
Upcoming spring 2009 courses on migration at the University of Minnesota encompass a range of themes from many departments. From photography to literature and the American mosaic to Paris, these courses can be used to fill requirements as well as electives in the coming semester.
The IHRC will have limited services for collection requests during the winter break (December 19, 2008 through January 19, 2009). Also, Elmer L. Andersen Library will be closed Dec. 25-26 and Jan. 1-2. Please consult in advance with collections staff about requests as limited staffing will increase the wait time for materials.
IHRC is scheduling presentations for the Spring 2009 Research in Progress series. During 2008-2009, IHRC programs will promote research on refugees and on migration and memory.
The Immigration History Research Center will award fellowships in 2009-2010 of up to $15,000 to University of Minnesota graduate students making use of the IHRC’s extensive Estonian, Latvian, and Arab American collections.
The IHRC will have limited service for collections requests during Thanksgiving week (Nov. 24-28). The IHRC and Elmer L. Andersen Library will be closed Thursday, Nov. 27 and Friday, Nov. 28. Please consult in advance with collections staff about requests Monday through Wednesday, as limited holiday week staffing will increase wait time for materials.
View images from this exhibition on display October 14-December 9 in the Elmer L. Andersen Library Gallery. More...
The Last Poets and The Young Achievers will perform original works of "Poetry of the Somali Diaspora" at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20th, in room 120 of Elmer L. Andersen Library.
The new University of Minnesota blog México-Minnesota will provide news, views, and information about connections between Minnesota and Mexico, both in the past and in the present.
Louis Mendoza will give a multimedia presentation titled "A Journey Across Our America: Meditations on Immigration and Cultural Belonging" at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, in room 125 of the Nolte Center.
Books and theses recently published featuring research done at the IHRC include Americans All: The Cultural Gifts Movement, by Diana Selig; Karen Braverman Bujanover's thesis, Immigrants Writing Identities: Searching for the Identity of Kawkab Amirka's Editors; and W jednosci sila by Joanna Wojdon.
The work of Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge in documenting Somali migration and life has inspired a year-long series of events, starting with a reception 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21, celebrating their new book, The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away.
"They Also Chose Minnesota" is the theme for the Friends of IHRC annual meeting and dinner this year. Join us on Saturday November 8, 2008...
November 1 is the 2008 deadline for applications for the Michael G. Karni Scholarship, which supports IHRC research related to the Finnish American experience....
Foreign Minister Kinga Göncz granted the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic to architect László Fülöp during a ceremony in Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008. (more...)
The author takes a photographic approach towards unraveling the history and legacy of Italians and their presence in America.
We are soliciting abstracts for papers to be included in a panel entitled, "Is humanitarianism compatible with refugee rights?" This panel will be part of the World Conference of Humanitarian Studies, organised by the universities of Bochum, Groningen and Wageningen.
Selected materials from the IHRC's collection of records of the Latvian chorus "Shield of Songs" document the activities of the choir from its 1945 inception in a displaced persons camp in Germany through the following three decades. View images and read more.
Patrons requesting materials in advance will have access to IHRC materials in the Elmer L. Andersen Library Reading Room on Saturdays from 9 am to 1 pm, starting Sept. 6, 2008. Limited services will be available in the Reading Room for all special collections at Andersen Library.
To complete an upcoming issue on Rac(e)ing Questions, the multidisciplinary online journal gender forum seeks two more contributions discussing intersections of race and gender in literature, film, or culture. We welcome contributions from all disciplines. Completed manuscripts should be submitted via email to gender forum by September 15, 2008.
The Fulbright German Studies Seminar offers U.S. scholars the opportunity to meet in Germany to discuss current issues relevant to both Germany and the international community. This year's seminar will be dedicated to "Germany's Future: New Parties - New Solutions?"
Congratulations to novelist Helen Barolini whose Italian edition of Umbertina has been awarded the coveted Italian literary prize Premio Acerbi for 2008. Ms. Barolini conducted research in the IHRC collections...
Undergraduate student Bahjo Mahamud has received a UROP grant for a creative historical project at the IHRC that combines scholarly research and the strong oral history tradition of the Somali community.
An exhibition opening July 4 at the Minnesota Historical Society features striking photographs of new immigrants at Ellis Island in their native costumes, taken by an untrained, yet highly gifted, registry clerk at the turn of the century.
The IHRC's 2008 Spring/Summer 8-page newsletter is available for viewing online http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/about/pdf/08springsummernews.pdf
See also current schedule for 2008-2009 Community Events at the IHRC.
IHRC Principal Office and Admin Specialist. Temporary: one-year, half time. Requisition # 156308. Read description and apply online at www.umn.edu/ohr.
Applications are now being accepted by a Republic of Slovenia archival training program scheduled in September 2008 in Ljubljana. The program supports preservation of cultural materials related to Slovenian migration.
It is with sadness that the IHRC shares with our community news of the death of Bill Hoglund (A. William Hoglund), a long-time supporter of and researcher associated with the IHRC, who passed away on Thursday, May 1, in Florida.
Bill was a faculty member for many years in the History Department at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, and in 2004 he donated his large and distinguished collection of Finnish American and multi-ethnic research materials to the IHRC.
The 2008 winners of the Friends of the IHRC Immigration History topic awards for History Day are Clara Linehan of Chisago Lakes Middle School; Luke Stone and Heather Stone of Cyber Village Academy; and Abby Norling Ruggles, Collin Knopp Schwyn and Nico Dregni of Seward Montessori School.
The IHRC is committed to preserving materials that document immigrant experience and making them available to the public. In 2008, our staff will be continuing to assess our collections and process materials as we place a temporary hold on acquisitions. Outreach programs will provide archival training and education, as well as resources, in 2008 and beyond.
The IHRC will hold community meetings on Sunday, May 18 and Thursday, May 22, 2008, about the capacity issues facing archival collections at the University of Minnesota. Program Director Haven Hawley will speak at both meetings, which will be held in St. Paul and at the University, and seek information about community needs.
The IHRC has available several small grants of $250 each to support travel costs of researchers needing to consult IHRC collections during the fiscal year 07/01/08 - 06/30/09. Deadline to submit application is May 1, 2008. More...
Students from the U of M present excerpts on May 1 from "Life History Project" reports that record the experiences of immigrants from many cultures in coming to the United States.
When: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 12:45-2:30 p.m.
Where: Wilkins Room 215, 2nd floor of HHH Center
301 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN
Inaugural Distinguished Lecture in Legal History by Professor Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa. Flyer.
"First Love: A Bulgarian Tale" opens April 18 at O'Shaughnessy Auditorium in St. Paul.
Deadline to submit applications: May 1, 2008.
New information about additional ca. 350 archival collections has recently been made available on the IHRC web site.
Playwright and historian Celeste Raspanti will present poetry from the IHRC collections at the University Libraries' First Fridays Series on April 4, from noon to 1 p.m. in Elmer L. Andersen Library.
Please note special hours March 17-21 at the IHRC during the University's Spring Break.
The IHRC needs volunteers to help staff an information table at International Women's Day on Saturday, March 15th, at Coffman Memorial Union. Contact Haven Hawley if you can staff a shift between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The IHRC community will celebrate the volunteers at the heart of the IHRC at a special appreciation event 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 29, in the Elmer L. Andersen Library Atrium.
Destination Shaanxi: Material Culture at the End of the Silk Road- Running November 8, 2007-February 15, 2008, the exhibit features generous gifts and loans from members of the USCPA-MN Chapter bringing to life the twelve centuries of decorative arts from Shaanxi Province, China.
More more information about this exhibit view http://ihrc.umn.edu/community/exhibit.htm
Chicano Studies professor Richard Martinez gives a presentation titled “Newspaper Coverage of the Immigrant Rights Movement 2006� Friday, Feb. 1 at noon, opening an exciting schedule of talks in the Global Media – Diasporic Cultures Series this spring.
Undergraduate students can gain experience in public history and digital archives while receiving course credit for Spring 2008. For details, see the complete internship description!
90 years of immigration studies at the University of Minnesota
"The Minnesota School of Immigration and Refugee Studies" Article by Donna R. Gabaccia
http://ihrc.umn.edu/publications/pdf/winterwebminnesotaschool1.pdf
The Immigrant Heritage Recipe Collection, a "deliciously tasteful�? cookbook that brings together 130+ diverse recipes from the IHRC's ethnic collections and the center's friends, is now for sale!
There are many links between the IHRC and the Iron Range in Minnesota (IRMN). The Center is currently developing a project focusing on exploring these connections. Continue
Previous Collections Updates
Andersen Library will be closed Monday, Dec. 31 and Tuesday, Jan. 1. The IHRC will resume regular working hours on Wednesday, Jan. 2.
Haven Hawley, IHRC Program Director
Although I’ve only been on the job since late August, my work as the new IHRC program director has settled into a busy pattern of meetings, research, and friendly faces, highlighted by glimpses of the Mississippi River flowing past Elmer L. Andersen Library. Underneath the banks of that river, in caverns carved out of sandstone and limestone, the collections of the Immigration History Research Center are secure but at capacity. Dealing with the lack of space for expansion is among the most pressing of the challenges – and opportunities – on which staff will be focusing in the coming year. I find inspiration from learning about the origins of the Immigration History Research Center and the work of people like Timothy Smith.
To call attention to the lives of people now living outside their birth countries (today numbering close to 200 million), the U.N. in 2000 proclaimed December 18 to be "International Migrants Day." On that day, in 1990, the U.N. General Assembly passed an International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. For further information, see: http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/events/migrants/
http://www.radio1812.net/
The IHRC's 2007-2008 Fall/Winter 8-page newsletter is available for viewing online http://ihrc.umn.edu/about/pdf/0708fallwinternews.pdf
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday week schedule, patrons should submit requests for material the day prior to conducting research at the IHRC. Please send queries by e-mail to ihrc@umn.edu.
Join Wing Young Huie, author and photographer of Looking for Asian America: An Ethnocentric Tour by Wing Young Huie for a free slide show and book signing. Time: 7:00 pm Friday, November 16 at Minnesota Center for Photography...
A new spring 2008 graduate-level readings course titled "Comparing Global Migrations" will focus on the study of human mobility as an increasingly global and interdisciplinary field...
The IHRC joins the archives and special collections units of Elmer L. Andersen Library in making materials available until 8 p.m. on Thursdays for researchers....
November 1 is the 2007 deadline for applications for the Michael G. Karni Scholarship, which supports IHRC research related to the Finnish American experience....
Thursday, October 25, 2007, 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Free ! For description and further information.....
The Immigrant Heritage Recipe Collection, a “deliciously tasteful� cookbook that brings together 130+ diverse recipes from the IHRC’s ethnic collections and the center’s friends, is now for sale! This beautiful volume includes categories from soups to desserts, highlighted by color and archival images from the IHRC's own collections. Limited edition, spiral bound. Price: $11.95 + p/h. To order, fill out the order form at this link.
The Immigrant Heritage Recipe Collection was compiled and edited by Mary Ann Novak, Cindy Herring, and Judy Rosenblatt. The IHRC staff thanks the Friends of the IHRC for co-sponsoring the cookbook and CLA External Relations for providing design assistance.
AMST 8920: Oceanic Space & Movement in Atlantic/Pacitic/Indian Ocean Worlds, Reading and Theorizing Oceanic Space and Movement, Instructor: Kale Bantigue Fajardo. (course description)
To anyone interested in Central European history, don't miss two concerts this weekend by the highly acclaimed Rose Ensemble of St. Paul. Held both Saturday night, October 20, (8 PM with a pre-concert talk at 7) at the Basilica in Mpls, and Sunday afternoon, October 21, (4 PM with a pre-concert talk at 3) at Church of the Assumption in St. Paul, both shows will be followed by a complimetary wine and cheese party, giving you a chance to meet the performers and friends of the Rose. Tickets can be ordered online at www.roseensemble.org . In addition, Student Rush tickets will be available at the door five minutes prior to the show for $8.00 to those with valid Student ID's.
(Continue reading for details and to listen to music now.)
"Looking to the Future on our 30th Anniversary" is the theme for the Friends of IHRC annual meeting and dinner this year. Join us on Saturday evening, November 3.
November 1, 2007 to submit application for Michael G. Karni Scholarship in 2008
December 15, 2007 to submit Request for Nomination for available IHRC Fellowships in 2008-2009 (American Latvian Association Graduate Fellowship in Latvian American Studies, Hildegard and Gustav Must Graduate Fellowship in Estonian American Studies)
Please Note -- Change in Location for the Legal History Workshop:
Date: Friday, September 21 (this week)
Time: 10:10-12:10
New Location: 308 Andersen Library
Presenting: Stephen Porter, University of Chicago, “Human Rights and the Problem of Formal Equality: American Policies of Refugee Relief at Home and Abroad in the Early Cold War�
Copies of Stephen's paper can be picked up in the History Department Mail Room (636 SST) or electronically from Barbara Welke at welke004@umn.edu
Please join the staff of the IHRC in welcoming Haven Hawley as Program Director. Haven comes to the IHRC after working for three years at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Haven has a Ph.D. in History from Georgia Institute of Technology, is an historian of the science and technology and book publishing, and has considerable expertise on Rare Books.
The Michael G. Karni Scholarship award is intended to help defray expenses of visiting professors, lecturers, or graduate students from the United States or abroad using the archival sources of the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), with emphasis on projects relating to the Finnish American experience. The deadline is November 1, 2007 to submit an application for travel in 2008. Read the full announcement (pdf).
The Migration Policy Institute has recently published a report under the title Bridging Divides: The Role of Ethnic Community Based Organizations in Refugee Integration.
Two examples of such organizations are documented in the IHRC collection of Refugee Studies Center Records for two of the dominant refugee groups in the Twin Cities area, from Southeast Asia and Somalia.
Two scholars are the recipients of IHRC Ethnic Studies Funds Grants-in-Aid for 2007-2008. With assistance from the Ukrainian American Studies Fund, Halyna Sarancha, from the University of Ternopil, Ukraine, visited the IHRC in Summer 2007 and presented her research on post-war Ukrainian migrations to the United States. Kenyon Zimmer, University of Pittsburgh, will visit the IHRC in 2008 with the support of the Italian American Studies Fund. Kenyon’s research focuses on Jewish and Italian anarchists in the twentieth-century U.S.
The next round for grant-in-aid applications will be posted in Spring 2008.
While the majority of IHRC’s collections are in English, several do contain materials in other languages. The IHRC’s especially rich Phillip K. Hitti and Frank Maria Papers as well as the Near East-related print holdings are among those containing materials in Arabic. Would you like to be able to fully explore these collections? Mizna, a forum located in Minneapolis which promotes Arab culture, is offering evening classes to learn the language. FFI: phone 612-788-6920, Web: http://mizna.org/classes/index.html
The annual meeting of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) is held in Minneapolis July 11-14, 2007. Many fine print and book arts enthusiasts are among the participating crowd. Can the IHRC collections offer items of interest to this group?
Erika Lee has been named Fesler-Lampert Professor in Public Humanities for 2007-08. The Fesler-Lampert Professorship is designed to strengthen the ties between humanities scholars and the broader community. The position recognizes and supports the research of humanities faculty whose work promotes the public good and involves community partners. Erika received the award based on her past achievements and the very important book project she has underway on Angel Island, for decades the major port of entry for immigrants coming to the U.S. from Asia and the Pacific Rim generally. She receives $40,000 in research support. Congratulatons to Erika!
The Hmong Cultural Center Resource Library is the largest collection of Hmong-related academic research publications in Minnesota and most likely the United States. The most distinctive and specialized portions of the library are the dissertations/theses and peer-reviewed journal article collections. Access that library Web site at: http://www.hmongcenter.org/library1.html
The IHRC's 2007 Spring/Summer 6-page newsletter is available for viewing online http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/about/pdf/07sprsumnews.pdf
Among the refugees arriving in the United States in the last decade and a half, a large group comes from Liberia. Many of them have settled in Minnesota. Learn more about the Liberians from the IHRC collections and even more from a project sponsored recently by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Following negotiations between former IHRC Head of Research Collections/Associate Director Joel Wurl and Janusz Krzyzanowski, President of the Polish American Immigration and Relief Committee (PAIRC) in 2005-2006, the Immigration History Research Center has recently received ca. 100 linear feet of archival records of the PAIRC. The collection spans the years 1946-2001.
The College of Liberal Arts (UM) has made diversification and internationalization top priorities. Diversification and internationalization will be achieved through interdisciplinary collaborations of faculty, students and community. Global REM is designed to strengthen an existing cluster of interdisciplinary research centers, departments, programs and faculty that have made substantial contributions to the diversification of research and teaching. U.S.-focused in its earlier iterations, this cluster is now poised to undertake a new initiative by internationalizing its focus.
Thanks to the generosity of donors during the recent Endowment Campaign, the IHRC now offers small grants of $250 to support travel costs of researchers needing to consult its ethnic studies collections for a minimum one-week period. Grants are open to graduate students, faculty and independent scholars in the U.S. or internationally who live more than a day's drive from the Twin Cities.
Susan Grigg died May 5 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester where she was being treated for cancer. Susan received her Ph.D. in American history and archives administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her M.L.S. from Simmons College. Before coming to Minnesota, she worked at Yale; she left here to head the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, worked at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, MA, and then served for ten years as head of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. She is survived by her husband, the Rev. Jace Kahn.
The IHRC will be closed for research on Wednesday and Thursday, May 2 and 3, from 12:30 - 4:30 p.m. The Center will remain open to on-site researchers 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on both days.
The IHRC has recently received the initial shipments of materials from Professor Sucheng Chan, scholar of Asian American studies. This is the first installment of a large amount of published and unpublished materials that are scheduled to arrive over the next couple of years. The recent shipment comprises 15 linear feet of contemporary as well as older scholarship on Asian Americans (including copies of dissertations from universities nation-wide), fiction by Asian Americans, periodicals and research source files, particularly pertaining to Professor Chan's research on Cambodian refugees.
Previous collections updatesMinnesota Population Center Seminar Series: Speaker: Charles Hirschman, Ph.D. (Department of Sociology and Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington). Date: Monday, April 30, 12:15-1:15 in 50 Willey Hall. Continue reading for the abstract.
Lecture by Prof. Trica Keaton, Friday, April 20, 2007 at 4:00 p.m. in Room 125 Nolte (U of M)
Presented by the Department of French and Italian (U of M)
This panel discussion will address how the events of 9/11, and subsequent legislation such as the USA Patriot Act, have affected the lives of refugee, immigrant and religious minorities. Monday, April 23, 2007 (7:00-9:00 p.m.), Location: Cowles Auditorium, Humphrey Institute, 301--19th Ave. S., Minneapolis MN. Free and open to the public. Further information on panelists and co-sponsors.
Donna Gabaccia, Director of the Immigration History Research Center, traces global immigration issues with Ruben Martinez, award-winning journalist and author of The New Americans and Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. May 8, 7:30 p.m. Ticket and location information.
About half-a-century ago, many voices in the United States were calling for a major overhaul of the immigration law. Of the foreign born at that time, the largest group were those born in Italy. And not surprisingly, Italian Americans were very active in trying to change the immigration laws they viewed as discriminatory and unfair. In the name of equality, they were willing to join forces with some other immigrant groups whose nationalities were not favored by the quota system of the 1952 Walter-McCarran Act. Shortly after the enactment of that legislation, the American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM) was established by Italian Americans.
Opening Reception on Friday, March 30, 2007 6-9 PM, Place: Northrup King Building, 1500 Jackson Street NE, Minneapolis.
Opening remarks by the Consul General of Croatia in Chicago, Hon. Zorica Matkovic. Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the photo exhibit World Heritage Sites in Croatia celebrates the 25th anniversary of the inclusion of Croatian landmarks on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The exhibit opened in Paris last year, toured Europe, showed in Argentina, and is now making its North American tour in Kansas City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago and New York.
Congratulations to Prof. Eric Weitz (history) who has been awarded the Distinguished McKnight University Professorship for 2007 for his significant accomplishments at the University of Minnesota. Weitz will hold the title "Distinguished McKnight University Professor" for as long as he remains at the University of Minnesota. This award honors and rewards the highest-achieving faculty at the University of Minnesota who has attained full professor status. Weitz is a member of the IHRC's Faculty and Student Advisory Council.
Details: Tuesday, March 20, 4th Floor Old Main, Macalester College, 11:50am-1pm, Refreshments provided.
Edén Torres will be reading from her novel in progress, tentatively titled, “A Visible Heat Rising.â€? The manuscript follows the lives of two Mexican American women growing upÂand oldÂin Minnesota. The main characters, Chita and Fia, come of age in a racist rural township during the Civil Rights era. Outside their homes and friendship they are isolated from Mexican culture. Nevertheless, Chita and Fia bear every tension, every adversity with love, humor, and a good dose of righteous defiance. Though they spend much of their lives romanticisizing the Southwest, they eventually come to understand that through their friendship they've created a Chicana homeland in Minnesota.
Friday, March 2. Join us at noon for a "First Fridays" presentation in 120 Andersen Library. Cookbooks can be a surprisingly rich source of historical information, and cookbook collections are becoming more common in academic libraries. This presentation will explore cookbook collections as research materials and individual cookbooks as historical artifacts. Speakers: Julie Kelly, Magrath Library; Donna Gabaccia, Department of History/Immigration History Research Center; Linda Schloff, Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest Historical Society; Beth Kaplan, University Archives. View the flyer for more details.
The Global Sexualities Research Collaborative is pleased to announce that Professor Eithne Luibheid, author of Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border, will present a lecture Thursday, March 1st at 3:30 p.m. in Room 402 in Walter Library(U of Minnesota). Luibheid is a member of the Department of Women's Studies at the University of Arizona, as well as the director for the Committee on LGBT Studies. Her talk, is entitled "Genealogy, Intimacy, and the Shifting Boundaries Between Legal and Illegal Immigration." Refreshments and a brief reception will follow the presentation. (more...)
Congratulations to Jeff Manuel who has been awarded the Dewitt Fellowship for 2007-08. Each Department can nominate only one candidate, and there is only one fellowship awarded annually in this particular University-wide competition which supports advanced graduate students in the humanities. Jeff is a member of the IHRC's Faculty and Student Advisory Council and a graduate instructor in the History Department.
- reads a headline from the London Times above an article reporting on refugee crisis in the Middle East. "About three million [Afghan] refugees in Pakistan, two million in Iran, and two million so called 'internal refugees' mostly living in Kabul, together constitute the world's biggest refugee population." The date is not in 2006 or 2007 but rather March 26, 1988, following the announcement of the anticipated withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Someone working at the United States Committee for Refugees clipped this article, and now it can be found - along with many other items providing information on refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and many other parts of the world over two and a half decades from ca. 1970 to 1995 - in one of the major archival collections held at the Immigration History Research Center - the Records of the United States Committee for Refugees (recently renamed United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants). A new, preliminary folder inventory for the collection has been made available for the first time on-line.
Images of several items selected from this collection are available for viewing at the IHRC web site by clicking here.
A museum exhibit in the first floor gallery of Andersen Library, cosponsored by the Friends of the IHRC, free and open to the public. The exhibit will be available from March 8 to May 7, 2007. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. The gallery is also open Saturday, May 5 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Directions and parking for Andersen Library.
The IHRC is pleased to announce Paul Anthony Lubotina as the recipient of the 2006-2007 Michael G. Karni Scholarship. Dr. Lubotina is an instructor in American History at Northern Michigan University. The title of his project is “Political Activities of Finnish Immigrants during the Great Depression.� The IHRC will host an informal noon presentation by Dr. Lubotina in May 2007.
New sounds inside the Mighty Fortress (by Karl Gehrke, Minnesota Public Radio, December 21, 2006) "A new exhibit at the University of Minnesota challenges the stereotype of Lutherans as staid, white Scandinavians. The recent arrival of immigrants from Latin America, Africa and Asia has created many ethnically diverse Lutheran congregations in the Twin Cities. As the exhibit demonstrates, you can hear as well as see the changes. " Continue..
Elizabeth Zanoni, a Ph.D. student in the Department of History, is the first University of Minnesota graduate student to be awarded the UNICO National Graduate Fellowship in Italian American Studies. Liz will hold the fellowship in Spring 2007. Liz is interested in the development of transnational consumer culture and the history of migration from Italy to the United States.
The IHRC has always collected documentation on how applicants for the United States citizenship have been tested by the government and what has been provided to help them prepare for the examinations. These volumes include various English lessons manuals, textobooks on citizenship or "Americanization" and practice questionnaires issued by the government or service organizations assisting the foreign born. The latest addition to this group of materials is the New Pilot Naturalization Exam recently released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (November 30, 2006). The 144 questions and answers as well as more facts about the test redesign are available at the US CIS web site. See if you'd pass!
Resources beyond IHRC holdings. A new web site has been launched providing information about the foreign-born and ethnics in Minnesota - "Ethnic Trends".
A new research guide "Reparations, Reconciliation and Forced Migration" by Megan Bradley has been made available by the Forced Migration Online network at their web site.
The IHRC's 2006 fall/winter 4-page newsletter is available for viewing online (2006 fall/winter news.pdf).
Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2006. Keynote Speaker: Michael Omi (Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley): "The Contradictions of Colorblindness: Race and Its Discontents" (for further information).
Due to staff reorganization, the IHRC office hours have been temporarily changed to Monday - Friday, 10:00 - 12:00 a.m. and 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. until further notice. Thank you for your understanding.
Immigration, particularly the brouhaha surrounding unauthorized or illegal immigrants in the United States, was the topic du jour at a recent full-day conference on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. The nearly 200 people who attended, including high school students and educators, business leaders and immigration lawyers, left more informed about some common myths and truths about immigration. Continue reading Pauline Oo's article at http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/Eye_on_immigration.html#
A panel composed of Prof. Charles Gati (Johns Hopkins University), Dr. Robert O. Fisch (University of Minnesota, emeritus) and Laszlo Fulop (Minnesota Hungarians) participants in the 1956 Revolt will offer assessments and testimony on the events of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Date: Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, 8:00 PM...(more)
All clothing will be given to newly arrived refugees and asylees who will experience their first Minnesota winter this year. Dates: Friday, November 17th, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday, November 18th, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Read more to learn which items will be accepted, the dropoff address and contact info.
...by an editorial group at Encyclopaedia Britannica that identifies and screens other Web sites to supplement the encyclopaedia's own content. These Web sites, called iGuide sites, are then presented as recommended resources for online readers. The IHRC's Web site (http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/) has been approved as a Britannica iGuide site. Listen to a 90 second "U Moment" describing this announcement http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/events/media/britannica_iguide.mp3.
Sponsored by Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, Humphrey Institute (Cowles Auditorium); Date: 11/01/06, Time: 8:30-3:30. Registration Required by 10/25/06. FFI: Lisa Thalacker, 612-624-8842 email: cspg@umn.edu
All interested community members are invited to attend the 29th annual meeting and potluck lunch of the Friends of the Immigration History Research Center on Saturday Oct. 21, 2006. Membership dues may be paid at the meeting. Attendees who are unable to bring a potluck contribution are welcome but are asked to make a voluntary contribution for the cost of their lunch. See flyer for more details (pdf format). FFI: Kathy Gruett, Friends president, klabriolagruett@msn.com or phone 952-894-9490
An exhibit sponsored by the Minnesota Hungarians along with the Immigration History Research Center will open in the Elmer L. Andersen Library on October 22, 2006 and remain open for 4 weeks. The exhibit depicts the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and celebrates the 50-year anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolt and its international significance. FFI: http://minnesotahungarians.onza.net/ or http://www.mbk.org/
Date: Sept. 21, 2006 (8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.), Location: Carpenters Hall, 700 Olive Street, St. Paul MN
Designed for union officers, board members, staff, stewards and activists. Sponsored by the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service in partnership with the Resource Center of the Americas and other community organizations. Pre-registration required; deadline is Fri. Sept. 15, 2006. $20 registration fee. FFI Deborah Rosenstein, drosenstein@csom.umn.edu or call 612-626-2034.
The Michael G. Karni Scholarship award is intended to help defray expenses of visiting professors, lecturers, or graduate students from the United States or abroad using the archival sources of the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), with emphasis on projects relating to the Finnish American experience. The deadline is November 1, 2006 to submit an application for travel in 2007. Read the full announcement (pdf).
New course in Fall 2006, Research Seminar: History 8990
Tuesdays, 3:30-5:20 p.m.
For more information and permission to enroll: Donna R. Gabaccia, Professor of History and Director, Immigration History Research Center (drg@umn.edu)
One of the 'feathers in the cap' of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs is the International Fellows Program. Each year the program hosts 16-20 mid-career professionals from Asia, Africa, Latin American and the former Soviet States as they work on academic and professional development programs here from August to June. This dynamic group includes heads of NGOs, attorneys working on human rights issues, specialists in environmental protection, educators, law enforcement professionals, and many others.
U of MN sociology professor Douglas Hartmann, a member of the IHRC's Faculty and Student Advisory Council, and his colleague Joe Gerteis have been awarded the 2006 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award from the Political Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association for their 2005 Sociological Theory article, "Dealing with Diversity: Mapping Multiculturalism in Sociological Terms."
Donna Gabaccia, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, said it is common for the children of immigrants to try to reconnect with their neighborhood in their later years. In New York, people who grew up in Brooklyn neighborhoods have created Web sites to connect with friends from their youth, she said. See article in Chicago Tribune, July 25, 2006
With gifts contributed to the IHRC’s Timo Riippa Fund for Finnish American Studies, the Center is hosting an intern from Germany for a 10-week stay that began July 17. The intern, Tanja Aho, was born in Finland but grew up in Germany and has dual Finnish/German citizenship. A student of Finnish and American studies at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany, she is working at the IHRC on a collection of poems and other writings by the Finnish-American author Terttu Kätkä.
So you think you know about immigration?
It's a frequent lament: If only Minnesota's newest immigrants were like Ole and Lena -- or Johann and Bertha -- who swiftly learned English, shunned government handouts and observed the same laws that so many of today's immigrants ignore. But don't believe stereotypes, say the folks at the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/531837.html
compiled by FlorenceMae Waldron for a workshop with the Northfield Public Schools, held at the IHRC on June 12, 2006 (one page, pdf format).
Read online or print out the 4 page spring/summer 2006 issue of IHRC NEWS (requires Adobe Acrobat). The News is mailed/posted twice a year.
Donna Gabaccia, IHRC director, offers perspective in May 11 Rocky Mountain News article.
For listing, descriptions, application and deadline information
of selected books, online aids, and published collections, prepared by IHRC staff and distributed at the Center’s February 17 symposium on oral methodologies, has been posted as a reference for interested researchers. (in pdf format)
Minnesota Community Campaign consortium offers a resource kit to help groups welcome new Minnesotans. The kit may be seen at the IHRC. (Description)
containing ca.100,000 pages of primary source information covering 1800–1950. FFI: U Libraries
Available free (pay $2.23 US postage + $1.50 handling fee = $3.73; inquire if non-US). Contains essays, detailed inventory, photographs (some text is also online in this site's "Research Sources�?).Contact IHRC to order.