Staff

Llana Barber is the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair of Immigration History and the director of the Immigration History Research Center. She is a scholar of immigration and Latine history with a focus on the Caribbean diaspora. Her first book, Latino City: Immigration and Urban Crisis in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1945-2000 (UNC Press, 2017), explored the history of New England’s first Latine-majority city. This work emphasized the impact of deindustrialization and suburbanization on Lawrence, Massachusetts, and the Puerto Rican and Dominican activism that transformed the city. Latino City won the Kenneth Jackson Award from the Urban History Association, and the Lois P. Rudnick Prize from the New England American Studies Association.

Her current research project documents Haitian migration to the United States, Dominican Republic, and Bahamas in the late 20th century, and militarized efforts to exclude Haitian asylum seekers. Barber’s work investigates the impact of anti-Black racism on migrant experiences. Her article, “Anti-Black Racism and the Nativist State” (JAEH, 2023) placed Black mobility and anti-Black racism at the center of the history of US immigration restriction from the colonial era through the present. Barber joins the University of Minnesota from the State University of New York at Old Westbury, where she received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. She serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Latinx Histories series at the University of North Carolina Press and recently joined the Editorial Board for the Journal of American Ethnic History, the official journal of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.

Michele Waslin is the assistant director of the Immigration History Research Center. In her role, Waslin tracks and analyzes immigration research and policy, writes on related topics, coordinates the work of the IHRC, and builds relationships with academics and other experts. Waslin has written extensively on immigration policy, has authored multiple book chapters and publications, and has appeared in English and Spanish-language media. Her book, Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum, with co-author Carol Cleaveland, will be published by NYU Press in October 2024.

Prior to joining the IHRC, she was the program coordinator of the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University. Prior to that, Waslin was a senior policy analyst at the American Immigration Council. Before that, Michele was the manager of the Immigration and the States project at the Pew Charitable Trusts and was director of immigration policy research at UnidosUS (previously the National Council of La Raza). Dr. Waslin holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Creighton University, a master's degree in international relations from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Ibrahim Hirsi is a PhD candidate in US history and a research assistant at the Immigration History Research Center. His research focuses on the movements and experiences of 20th-century Black migrant laborers and their connections to the world. His dissertation explores the history of Somali migrant workers who settled in the United States and the United Kingdom between 1900 and 1960. He traces the journeys of these migrants from pastoral communities in British Somaliland to industrial cities in New York, Ohio, Michigan, England, and Wales.

Ibrahim holds a master’s degree in history and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a reporter for various media outlets in the Twin Cities, covering immigration, labor, politics, and social justice issues. His work has been featured, among other publications, in The Nation, Politico, The World, MinnPost, and Sahan Journal.