Immigration Law among Topics Marking 50th Anniversary of UA’s American Studies

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A week of seminars and talks will mark the 50th anniversary of the American studies department at The University of Alabama.

The department is joining with UA’s Summersell Center for the Study of the South to offer the series, which includes discussion of the future of American studies and Alabama’s immigration law. Events are free and open to the public.

At noon Tuesday, March 27 Dr. Sarah Cornell, assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico, will present a faculty brown-bag discussion on “Race, Slavery and Freedom” in the Summersell Room in ten Hoor Hall.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, a roundtable discussion and public forum “Southern Hospitality? Alabama’s Immigration Law in Political and Historical Perspective” will consider the meaning and implications of Alabama House Bill 56.

The roundtable will be in 205 Gorgas Library; a reception will follow. In addition to Cornell, participants will be Dr. Matthew Frye Jacobson, professor of American studies and history at Yale University; Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama; and Sam Brooke, a staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center and lead litigator in HICA v. Bentley, a court case challenging the Alabama immigration law.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, March 29 Jacobson will speak in 125 ten Hoor Hall on “the historian’s eye,” his current online project. The project uses photographs and oral histories to create a documentary record of the recession which began in 2008.  A book signing and reception will follow. Jacobson will meet with American studies faculty, graduate students and others to speak about “Future Directions in American Studies” at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in 301 Morgan Hall.

Co-sponsors are UA’s College of Arts & Sciences, the Arts & Sciences Diversity Committee, New College and the departments of criminal justice, gender and race studies, history and modern languages & classics.

The department of American studies celebrated its 50th anniversary in October, with an event honoring Dr. Clarence “Pete” Mondale, who founded the program in 1961.

“American Studies has always been concerned with the diversity of American culture, the variety of people who have helped create it, the links between this nation and the world and the impact of our past on current concerns,” said Dr. Lynne Adrian, the chairperson of the department.

For more details, contact Adrian, at 205/348-5940 or ladrian@as.ua.edu.

UA’s College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.

Contact

Richard LeComte, media relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu, 205/348-3782

Source

Dr. Lynn Adrian, 205/348-9762, ladrian@as.ua.edu