CLA: IHRC Updates

From All Points: America's Immigrant West, 1870s-1952 by Elliott Robert Barkan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. 598 pp. ISBN 978-0-253-34851-7.

Reviewer Walter D. Kamphoefner (Texas A&M University) writes "...Barkan provides a view of immigration to the West that is both panoramic and analytical, above all highlighting the difference in reception that immigrants encountered depending on whether or not they were "visible minorities." The relatively low profile of Germans, both in the book and in the society of the American West, can be taken as an index of their relatively easy acculturation."

Citation: Walter D. Kamphoefner. Review of Barkan, Elliott Robert, From All Points: America's Immigrant West, 1870s-1952. H-GAGCS, H-Net Reviews. October, 2009.

URLs: complete review or to order this book

Posted by Cynthia Herring at 8:43 AM | Permalink

The Canadian Committee on Migration, Ethnicity and Transnationalism is a new academic organization created to foster and facilitate collaboration among historians working in this field. Those interested in the history of migrations, ethnicity, transnationalism and related subjects are invited to join the CCMET listserve or visit the web site. (more)

Through the listserv, the CCMET circulates details about upcoming conferences, requests for panel participants, and calls for papers. Ideas and information on esources and archival collections are shared that will stimulate and inform research on the history of migration and related subjects.

The CCMET was established in June, 2009, during the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association (CHA). The executive committee of the CCMET is composed of the following officers: Lisa Chilton, University of Prince Edward Island (Chair), Royden Loewen, University of Winnipeg (Vice-chair), Bruce Elliott, Carleton University (Secretary-treasurer), and two members at large (Laura Madokoro, University of British Columbia, also listserv moderator ex officio, and Tina Chen, University of Manitoba).

The CCMET listserve and web presence may be accessed at the following link: http://groups.google.com/group/CHA-MET(please note that you may have to copy and paste this address into your browser). If you would like assistance relating to the listserv, please contact Laura Madokoro at lmadok@interchange.ubc.ca. Any other questions may be directed to Lisa Chilton at lchilton@upei.ca.

Posted by Cynthia Herring at 10:18 AM | Permalink

The Wartime Experiences of a Cleveland Czechoslovak Legionnaire: the World War I Diary of Ladislav Krizek by Stephen Sebesta

Rússia - Ascensão e Queda de Um Império - Uma História Geopolítica e Militar da Rússia, dos Czares ao Século XXI by João Fábio Bertonha

Written by the local author Stephen Sebesta, The Wartime Experiences of a Cleveland Czechoslovak Legionnaire: the World War I Diary of Ladislav Krizek is a new book consisting of a translated diary along with relevant newspaper articles, photographs, and other historical material.

Most of the material was collected from Ladislav's sons and daughters, who heard of Sebesta's work on the history of the Czech community and wanted to bring to light the important role their father played in that history. Much research was done here at the IHRC on the important roles he played in the Czech Cleveland Community, his wartime service, and his dedication to the citizenship and assistance of his fellow veterans and disabled members of the Czechoslovak Legionnaire.

The book is available in hardback and paperback editions.
FFI: http://www2.xlibris.com/BOOKSTORE/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=59645

Rússia - Ascensão e Queda de Um Império - Uma História Geopolítica e Militar da Rússia, dos Czares ao Século XXI (Russia - Rise and Fall of an Empire - a Geopolitical and Military History of Russia, the Czars to the 21st Century) was written by João Fábio Bertonha.

Although Russia has been a great power and an important player in the international system for centuries, its history was particularly symptomatic of major movements of the 20th century, such as socialism, industrialization and modern alternatives. Political and social history perspectives have dominated Brazilian analyses especially of the Revolution of 1917 and USSR, but Bertonha's current work helpfully addresses diplomatic and military history, as well. Starting at the time of the czars, passing through the Soviet age and to the present, he traces the main quandaries of Russian presence since the 16th century as Moscow worked through eras of war and peace that defined the identity of the country.

João Fábio Bertonha is Doctor in History for the Unicamp; Professor of History in the State University of Maringá and Researcher of the CNPq. He has been a visiting researcher at universities in Brazil, North America, Europe and Latin America, and has conducted research at the Immigration History Research Center, among other repositories. He is author of innumerable books and articles on international relations, Italian immigration and fascist movements.

FFI and order form: http://www.jurua.com.br/shop_item.asp?id=21323

Posted by gruss029 at 8:43 AM | Permalink

Friday, October 16, 10:10-12:10, Mondale Hall 55.
The Legal History Workshop will be hosting Christopher Capozzola, Associate Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is currently working on transitional justice, postcolonial citizenship, and war crimes trials in Asia following WWII. Capozzola will be presenting a paper from his current research titled "A Tale of Two Treasons: Adjudicating War Crimes and Collaboration in Manila, 1945."

The paper examines the trial of Japanese General Yamashita Tomoyuke-and the unsuccessful Supreme Court appeal in Yamashita v. United States that preceded his August 1945 execution-in the local context of postwar Manila. Based on U.S., Philippine, and Japanese public records, his paper explores the conflicts, both local and geopolitical, that shaped America's approach to transitional justice in postwar Asia. Considering Yamashita's trial together with the indictments of thousands of Philippine collaborators before the Filipino People's Court demonstrates the limits of transitional justice and the endurance of colonial legal practices on the eve of decolonization in Asia. (The paper is available from Kristen Gandrow at kgandrow@umn.edu )

Posted by Meghan Delisi at 2:44 PM | Permalink

The Spectrum Trust Foundation of St. Paul, Minn., has awarded Korean Quarterly and Immigration History Research Center a $2,500 grant to support their work to initiate a digital newspaper archive preserving an important Korean-American ethnic publication.

Korean Quarterly (KQ) and Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) received The Spectrum Trust-Asian Pacific Endowment Grant as part of developing a public-private partnership to assist ethnic publishers in meeting demand for online information, funding ongoing operations, and ensuring long-term access to ethnic publications. The IHRC is a migration studies research center at the University of Minnesota with internationally-known archives related to U.S. immigration from 1880 to the present.

"IHRC is joining with Korean Quarterly because KQ is a historically significant publication documenting Korean-American experience," said Haven Hawley, program director of the IHRC and supervisor of the Center's archives.

Ethnic publishers are likely to be hit especially hard by expectations for free online access even as print subscriptions are dropping, said Dr. Hawley. "Without publishers like KQ to document immigrant and multi-cultural identities, we will lose voices that are important to telling the many stories of American identity."

Korean Quarterly was founded in 1997 and has received more than 24 awards for journalistic excellence, including first place in Commentary in the 2009 New America Media Awards. Writers and editors have covered important current and historical issues, many of which were not covered in the mainstream press. When the largest group of Korean adoptees reached their adulthood along with the largest group of second generation in the late 1990s, KQ documented the renaissance of leadership, the arts, literature, and professional accomplishments that resulted.

KQ web master Andrea Lee began a project two years ago to create an archive of selected articles in a searchable format. With technical and archival expertise from IHRC, the publishers will be able to create a searchable, online archive, preserved and migrated to new platforms so that new advances in digital technology can be accommodated.

Project meetings will begin in October 2009, with phases scheduled during the next year for soliciting community support and advertising, planning technical design, conversion and indexing of files, and testing the digital archive for release in June 2010.

The Spectrum Trust-Asian Pacific Endowment Grant will help defray costs of labor by the KQ staff to plan the archive, index materials, and to engage potential sponsors and advertisers for the project. The grant provides only a fraction of the project's cost, however. Most of the work will be conducted through volunteer or in-kind services, and the publisher and research center are applying for additional funding.

For more information on the project, contact Martha Vickery at 651-771-8164 or koreanquarterly@gmail.com.

Posted by Elizabeth Hawley at 8:53 AM | Permalink

The Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) at the University of Minnesota has awarded two of its most prestigious graduate fellowships: the Francis Maria Graduate Fellowship in Arab American Studies and the American Latvian Association (ALA) Graduate Fellowship in Latvian American Studies.

Charlotte Albrecht, a Ph.D. candidate in feminist studies, was awarded the Francis Maria Fellowship. Her research focuses on Arab migration history in the United States and how class, gender, sexual and religious norms have affected processes of racial formation for Arab migrants.

"I am very grateful to be awarded the Francis Maria Fellowship. The IHRC has a rich legacy of supporting both Middle East area studies and Arab American studies and I am excited and honored to be a part of it," Albrecht said. "This fellowship will enable me to work in the IHRC collections, and to travel to a national conference to present my work and learn from others in my field."

The fellowship was established in 2003 with a major gift from the Francis Maria Foundation for Justice and Peace. Its objective is to further research in the Near Eastern collections of the IHRC and to promote scholarship on Arab American identity.

Ilze Garoza, a masters student in comparative and international development education, was awarded the ALA Fellowship. Garoza's research looks at how Latvian immigrants have both successfully integrated themselves in the United States and also managed to maintain their national identity for over 50 years.

"Receiving the ALA Fellowship sets the highest possible standards for my research," said Garoza. "It acknowledges the importance of my research on Latvian diaspora in the United States and provides me with the necessary resources to do my work."

The ALA Fellowship was established in 2004 with a combined gift from the American Latvian Association, the Latvian Welfare Association, and the World Federation of Free Latvians, and an additional contribution from the Diaspora Fund of the Republic of Latvia in 2005.

For more information about the recipients and the awards, contact Tessa Eagan, College of Liberal Arts, (612) 625-3781, teagan@umn.edu.

Posted by Elizabeth Hawley at 11:57 AM | Permalink