IHRC Updates

About half-a-century ago, many voices in the United States were calling for a major overhaul of the immigration law. Of the foreign born at that time, the largest group were those born in Italy. And not surprisingly, Italian Americans were very active in trying to change the immigration laws they viewed as discriminatory and unfair. In the name of equality, they were willing to join forces with some other immigrant groups whose nationalities were not favored by the quota system of the 1952 Walter-McCarran Act. Shortly after the enactment of that legislation, the American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM) was established by Italian Americans.

Read more and view digitized samples

Posted by Daniel Necas at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Opening Reception on Friday, March 30, 2007 6-9 PM, Place: Northrup King Building, 1500 Jackson Street NE, Minneapolis.
Opening remarks by the Consul General of Croatia in Chicago, Hon. Zorica Matkovic. Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the photo exhibit World Heritage Sites in Croatia celebrates the 25th anniversary of the inclusion of Croatian landmarks on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The exhibit opened in Paris last year, toured Europe, showed in Argentina, and is now making its North American tour in Kansas City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago and New York.

The sites depicted in the exhibit include the historic towns of Dubrovnik and Trogir, the palace of Roman Emperor Diocletian in Split, the Early Christian basilica in Porec, the Renaissance cathedral in Sibenik, and the Plitvice Lakes National Park. The photographs are by renowned Croatian photographers.

Exhibit runs: March 28 – April 22, 2007

For more information call Vanca Schrunk at 612-788-3328 or 612-419-7470. For directions, please visit www.northrupkingbuilding.com.

Posted by Cynthia Herring at 05:02 PM | Permalink

Congratulations to Prof. Eric Weitz (history) who has been awarded the Distinguished McKnight University Professorship for 2007 for his significant accomplishments at the University of Minnesota. Weitz will hold the title "Distinguished McKnight University Professor" for as long as he remains at the University of Minnesota. This award honors and rewards the highest-achieving faculty at the University of Minnesota who has attained full professor status. Weitz is a member of the IHRC's Faculty and Student Advisory Council.

Posted by Cynthia Herring at 04:17 PM | Permalink

Details: Tuesday, March 20, 4th Floor Old Main, Macalester College, 11:50am-1pm, Refreshments provided.

Edén Torres will be reading from her novel in progress, tentatively titled, “A Visible Heat Rising.” The manuscript follows the lives of two Mexican American women growing up­and old­in Minnesota. The main characters, Chita and Fia, come of age in a racist rural township during the Civil Rights era. Outside their homes and friendship they are isolated from Mexican culture. Nevertheless, Chita and Fia bear every tension, every adversity with love, humor, and a good dose of righteous defiance. Though they spend much of their lives romanticisizing the Southwest, they eventually come to understand that through their friendship they've created a Chicana homeland in Minnesota.

Professor Torres is a Professor in Chicana/o Studies and Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota and the author of Chicana Without Apology: The New Chicana Cultural Studies. She will visit Macalester in conjunction with Women’s History Month. This year’s theme, “Women Create” explores the connections between feminism and the creative impulse.

Posted by Cynthia Herring at 04:46 PM | Permalink