Off the Page: Roundtable 1: Immigration

Introducing a new blog feature for these interesting times

This week, UNC Press is proud to host this first in a series of week-long virtual roundtables, featuring Press authors drawing on their work to address issues of contemporary concern. Posts will be published once per day, and we hope readers will share them widely, discuss and debate them with colleagues and friends, and draw on them to feed an ongoing conversation about ideas that matter.

More than ever, university presses are keenly aware of our role in publishing trustworthy, peer-reviewed scholarship that informs and educates readers as they seek to understand events of the present day in rich context. At UNC Press, we proudly embrace this mission as we publish work that not only serves communities of academic research but also translates the best scholarship for a public that craves reliable information. Meanwhile, an impressive and growing number of our authors have embraced the role of public intellectual, drawing from their expertise and from their books to speak to a wide range of audiences outside the academy. We are honored to be our authors’ partners in this critically important work.

Roundtable 1: #immigration

Our first roundtable centers on the subject of U.S. immigration. Recent executive actions and enforcement of existing law have thrust this contentious issue even more fully into the spotlight. The idea that the United States is a “nation of immigrants” is woven deeply into the fabric of American life, yet even the most cursory review of our history indicates how complex and troubled the subject of immigration has been. This week we are glad to be able to share five short essays by leading scholars of immigration. As a new essay is published each day, we’ll update here with the link:

• Elliott Young on the criminalization of aliens since the nineteenth century;
• Deirdre M. Moloney on the United States’ 1910 Muslim ban;
• Mireya Loza on the relationship between the Bracero Program of the mid-twentieth century and current guest worker programs;
• Julie M. Weise on Latinos, African Americans, and their changing relationship over immigration politics;
• Erika Lee on the “new xenophobia” and the role of immigration historians.

Thanks for reading. Let us know what you think.

Mark Simpson-Vos
Editorial Director, UNC Press