Public Programs
Since 1965, the IHRC has organized conferences, workshops, and public programs to promote research, teaching, and public conversation around immigration, race, and ethnicity in the United States.
Featured Upcoming and Past Events
On April 11, 2023 Dr. Carly Goodman, author of Dreamland: America's Immigration Lottery in an Age of Restriction joined the IHRC to discuss her book. Dreamland tells the story of the Diversity Visa Lottery, created in 1990 to foster diversity. The book traces this unlikely government program and its role in American life as well as the global story of migration. Goodman's talk focused on the impact of the lottery on migrants from African countries, and how rising African immigration to the United States has enriched American life, created opportunities for mobility, and fostered dreams. However, the promise of the American dream has been threatened by the embrace of anti-immigrant policies and persistent anti-Black racism. This book talk was moderated by Ibrahim Hirsi, PhD candidate in immigration history at UMN.
View the recording HERE.
This webinar focused on how the international community responded to climate change and related migration. Panelists Sumudu Atapattu and Yael Schacher explored how has the US responded, and what can be done to better prepare for and respond to climate migration and what human rights violations result from climate change related migration. Sarah Brenes, Binger Center for New Americans and Michele Waslin, Immigrant History Research Center moderated the conversation.
Migration scholars come from many different academic disciplines and find rewarding work both in academia and in other sectors. Navigating the non-academic job market can be difficult and confusing. This webinar, held Feb. 15, 2023 and moderated by IHRC Assistant Director Michele Waslin, brought together three migration historians who discussed their career paths in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Featuring: Chantel Rodriguez, Senior Public Historian, MN Historical Society; Elizabeth Venditto, Director of Institutional Giving, Museum of Jewish Heritage; and Phil Wolgin, Principal, US Immigration Policy, Amazon.
View recording here.
On November 10, IHRC Director Dr. Erika Lee joined Drs. Maddalena Marinari, Ashley Bavery, Kevin Kenny, Carl Lindskoog, Mireya Loza, and Yael Schacter in a discussion of immigration restriction past and present. The event was organized by the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and co-sponsored by the IHRC. The recording is now available here.
On October 11, IHRC's Director Erika Lee participated in a conversation at the Tenement Museum on understanding anti-immigrant ideas, past and present. Other panelists were Shauna Siggelkow of Define American and Kathryn Lloyd of the Tenement Museum. The recording is now available on YouTube.
This webinar presented new research on the increased risk of exposure for immigrants to COVID-19 in the workplace. View the Immigrant Essential Workers event.
The participants of this event highlighted activist and artistic practices that reimagine borders, migration, and mobility and that work toward a more just future. View the Futurity event.
What are borders, what do they do, and whom do they serve? Borders tend to be created and justified as a response to a crisis, but how do they exacerbate and produce crises and function as zones of exception? View the Borders as Violence event.
This critical conversation brought together members of the Migration Scholars Collaborative who spoke to the ongoing crisis of asylum and refuge in the United States. View the Refuge, Asylum, Violence event.
This panel brought together three advocates and leaders from Minnesota’s Black, immigrant, and refugee communities to discuss their work advancing equity and justice during the pandemic. View the Stories from the Pandemic event.
Author Adam Goodman (University of Illinois at Chicago) joined Professor Jimmy Patiño (UMN Chicano & Latino Studies) and IHRC Director Erika Lee to discuss his award-winning book. View The Deportation Machine event.
This panel brought together adoption scholars Kim Park Nelson, Kit Myers and Eleana Kim, as well as adoptee rights legal expert Gregory Luce, to discuss how federal immigration policy impacts transnational adoptees and shapes their national, cultural, and familial belonging. View the Adoptee Deportee event.
This event featured Elliott Young, Professor of History at Lewis & Clark College, and focused on his book, Forever Prisoners: How the United States Made the World's Largest Immigrant Detention System. He was joined by Director of the Detainee Rights Clinic (UMN Law School) Linus Chan and IHRC Director Erika Lee. View the Immigrant Detention event.
The Immigration History Research Center and the International Rescue Committee celebrated the launch of award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang's book Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir (Metropolitan Books, 2020.) View the book launch.
Dara Lind, one of the nation's leading immigration reporters from ProPublica in Washington, DC, was joined by the IHRC and journalist Ibrahim Hirsi to discuss immigration news reporting during the 2020 election year. This event was moderated by Ibrahim Hirsi and IHRC Director Erika Lee. View Covering Immigration in an Election Year.