IHRC Congratulates New Summer and Academic Year Fellows

The Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) offers a number of fellowships to support graduate students working on international migration- and US immigration-related topics. UMN graduate students from any discipline are welcome to apply. This year, we received a large number of applications for both the academic year and summer fellowships from students representing a broad range of colleges and programs as well as research interests.

2025 IHRC Summer Graduate Fellows:

• Yun Jung Kim, PhD Candidate in History, "Bases and Borders: US Military Bases and Migration Control in the Pacific (WWII-Present)."
• Alisa Kuzmina, PhD Candidate in History, "Caught in the Cold War: Immigrant Families in Minnesota."
• Khoi Nguyen, PhD Candidate in American Studies, "The Borders Crossed Us Too: Global Indigeneities, Migration, and World-Making."
• Nasema Zeerak, PhD Candidate in International Policy, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, "Afghanistan as Method: War, Peace, and Resistance from Exile."

2025-2026 IHRC Academic Year Fellows:

• Vincent Kancans, PhD Candidate in Germanic Studies with a minor in Moving Image Studies, recipient of the American Latvian Association Graduate Fellowship in Latvian American Studies. His dissertation is a media history of magnetic tape's invention, mass adoption, decline, and recent revival. More broadly, he researches the ways that ordinary citizens use technical media to challenge state and corporate power structures.
• Johara Suleiman, PhD Candidate in Social Work, recipient of the Graduate Fellowship in Finnish American Studies. Her dissertation explores how Minnesotan child protection service agencies' involvement impacts Somali mothers' understanding of the system, its purpose, and their mothering selves. (Note: the Graduate Fellowship in Finnish American Studies supports migration-related projects broadly, and does not require an emphasis on Finnish Americans.)