Shelton Stromquist

Most Americans think of themselves, in some sense, as descendants of immigrants. We carry around stories in our heads of the trials and tribulations or the soaring achievements of our forebears. But how closely have we considered those stories and their meaning? Where do they originate? How representative or unique are they when compared with the experience of other immigrants? How do historians’ accounts challenge or confirm them? (The social history of immigration has been a rich and expanding field of scholarship in recent decades.) In a practical sense, how do we construct a reliable account of our immigrant ancestors, their circumstances and the choices they made, when sources for doing so seem to be lacking? And how does our understanding of our own past shape our responses to the newest immigrants?

Stromquist will spend some time talking about these questions, examining our own assumptions in the light of what historians have to tell us, and comparing the experiences of America’s newest immigrants with those of our more distant ancestors. Bring your stories, an open mind, and a curiosity about how we might reconstruct the world immigrants inhabited in the past and better understand the life circumstances America’s newest immigrants now face.

 

Professor Stromquist, who joined the CLAS faculty in 1982, is a member of the Department of History.