Public Scholarship

At the IHRC, we believe in public scholarship and community-engaged research. We partner with organizations, participate in public conversations and events, offer perspectives on both historical and contemporary events, use new digital media, and share research and creative work with diverse audiences. This page features general publications, op-eds, and digital projects created by and featuring faculty, staff, and students affiliated with the IHRC.

Hana Maruyama, co-creator of the Campu podcast. Campu, tells the story of Japanese American incarceration like you’ve never heard it before. Brother-sister duo Noah and Hana Maruyama weave together the voices of survivors to spin narratives out of the seemingly mundane things that gave shape to the incarceration experience: rocks, fences, food, paper. Follow along as they move far beyond the standard Japanese American incarceration 101 and into more intimate and lesser-known corners of this history.

Erika Lee, "What Does It Mean to be American? Ask an Immigrant," LA Times, July 4, 2021

Erika Lee, "How the US Weaponized COVID Against Migrants," (co-authored with Maddalena Marinari and Ibrahim Hirsi) Public Books, August, 2021

Ibrahim Hirsi, “Young, educated and Black: Here’s how Minnesota’s politicians with African roots are reshaping the state’s politics,” Sahan Journal, August 30, 2020.

Erika Lee, “We Will Emerge…” a multi-vocal project of solidarity from over 100 writers, actors, politicians, reporters, and luminaries that urges readers to imagine a future beyond the current crises (PenAmerica), August 26, 2020

Erika Lee, “Americans are the Dangerous, Disease-Carrying Foreigners Now,” Washington Post, July 8, 2020

Ibrahim Hirsi, “In the aftermath of George Floyd killing, an uneasy discussion about racism in Minnesota’s Muslim community,” Sahan Journal, June 10, 2020. 

Yuichiro Onishi, “A Politics of Our Time: Reworking Afro-Asian Solidarity in the Wake of George Floyd,” Unmargin, June, 2020

Ibrahim Hirsi, “Young Minnesota Somalis, asserting their blackness, take center stage in George Floyd protests,” Sahan Journal, June 2, 2020. 

Erika Lee, “The WWII Incarceration of Japanese Americans Stretched Beyond U.S. Borders,” Time, December 4, 2019

Erika Lee, “Trump’s Xenophobia is an American Tradition – But It Doesn’t Have to Be,” Washington Post, November 26, 2019

Ibrahim Hirsi, “Trump administration’s ‘public charge’ provision has roots in colonial US,” Public Radio International, December 19, 2018. 

Erika Lee, “The Trump Administration’s Proposed Changes to the ‘Public Charge’ Rule Lack Merit,” with Ryan Allen, Jack DeWaard, Christopher Levesque, MinnPost, December 12, 2018

Ibrahim Hirsi, “Immigrants have a long history of taking their issues to the people — as political candidates,” Public Radio International, November 1, 2018.

Erika Lee, “We’ve Been Here Before: Historians Annotate and Analyze Immigration Ban’s Place in History,” Public Radio International, Feb. 1, 2017

Evan Taparata, “How a Lebanese immigrant helped pave the way for the study of Islam and Muslim culture in the US,” Public Radio International, December 6, 2016

Evan Taparata, “The US has come a long way since its first, highly restrictive naturalization law,” Public Radio International, July 4, 2016

Evan Taparata, “While the Supreme Court considers deportation policy, the roots of deportation itself come from a much earlier case,” Public Radio International, June 15, 2017

Evan Taparata, “How immigrant rights activists fought — and won — a battle against unjust laws and deportations,” Public Radio International, June 7, 2017

Evan Taparata, “During WWII, European refugees fled to Syria. Here's what the camps were like.” Public Radio International, April 26, 2016

Evan Taparata, “More American than apple pie, Muslims have been migrating to the US for centuries,” Public Radio International, April 4, 2016

Evan Taparata, “An anti-immigrant political movement that sparked an election day riot — 150 years ago,” PRI, March 5, 2016