[We have a conference call for papers for Immigrant America: New Immigration and Immigration Histories from 1965 to 2015, “an interdisciplinary conference marking the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Immigration Act.” It will take place on Friday, October 23, and, Saturday, October 24, 2015, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. The conference is cosponsored by “the Immigration History Research Center and Archives (University of Minnesota), which promotes interdisciplinary research on migration, race, and ethnicity in the U.S. and houses the largest archive of immigrant and refugee life in North America, and the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, the premier professional association of historians who study immigration and ethnicity. Both organizations will be celebrating their 50th anniversaries in 2015.”]1965 was a turning point in the long history of immigration to the United States. That year, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the 1965 Immigration Act, a law that removed national origins quotas, reshaped immigration to the United States, and led to the creation of new immigrant communities. This conference uses the anniversary of the 1965 Immigration Act to explore the connections between contemporary and historical migrations and communities in the U.S. We invite faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, artists, community advocates, and public history professionals from a wide range of disciplines to join us in examining all aspects of post-1965 immigration, including the ways in which it has affected the study of immigration before 1965. In examining how immigration has transformed the United States in the past fifty years, we hope to contribute to the development of migration studies across disciplines and to identify key directions for future scholarship.
Possible conference themes may include (but are not limited to) the following:
Borders and borderlands
Childhood and migration
Citizenship and belonging
Community advocacy
Comparative ethnic studies
Comparative North American experiences and perspectives
Culture and arts
Digital history and digital storytelling
Families and generations
Gender and migration
History, historiography, and memory
Identity and ethnicity
Immigrant rights and activism
Immigration law and policy
Immigration and settler colonialism
Labor and labor movements
Migration theories and frameworks
Public health
Public history and archives
Race and racial formation
Refugee resettlement, communities, and identities
Sexuality and migration
Transnational and diasporic identities, networks, organizations
Transracial and transnational adoption
Unauthorized Migration
Proposals due: January 9, 2015
We encourage full-panel submissions (including chairs/commentators) that highlight new research and perspectives, consider the state(s) of various specific fields and topics, and span the broad scope of immigration history and migration studies, including comparative and interdisciplinary approaches. Single paper submissions will also be given full attention. Final selection of participants will be made by the program committee. Limited funding is available for graduate student presenters through an application process. The selection process will begin shortly after the deadline. Notifications will be sent by email in May 2015.
For panel submissions, please submit the following (in 1 .pdf file):
(1) One paragraph description of the panel, including chairs/commentators, and identification of the conference theme(s) the panel will address
(2) Descriptions of each paper (1-2 paragraphs)
(3) One-page CV per panelist
For single-paper submissions, please submit the following (in 1 .pdf file):
(1) Description of paper (1-2 paragraphs) and identification of conference theme(s) it addresses
(2) Presenter's one-page CV
To submit your paper/panel proposal, visit [here].
Conference Proposal Portal will be open on December 1, 2014.
