I look forward to an exciting year of programs and events at the IHRC! This work would not be possible without the expertise and efficiency of the IHRC’s Assistant Director, Michele Waslin, who also served as the Interim Director during the 2023-2024 academic year. Dr. Waslin brings to the IHRC impressive experience as a researcher, author, and advocate, and I am eager to learn from her. The IHRC will also benefit this semester from the contributions of Graduate Research Assistant Ibrahim Hirsi, as he completes his dissertation on the history of Somali migrant workers in the United States and the United Kingdom from 1900 to 1960.

The success of the IHRC lies in the strength of its collaborations: with faculty, students, and staff at the University of Minnesota, immigrant and refugee communities in the Twin Cities, and scholars of immigration history throughout the United States (and beyond!). So I encourage you to reach out to me to share your ideas for the future of the IHRC.

Sincerely,

Llana Barber 

On September 10th, the IHRC hosted a webinar on Immigration and the 2024 Elections. Panelists David Bier of the Cato Institute, Julia Decker of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, Dr. Deborah Kang of the University of Virginia, Dr. Yael Schacher of Refugees International, and moderator Dr. Llana Barber discussed how the candidates are talking about immigration, what we might see from a future Trump or Harris presidency, and what role immigration has played in U.S. elections historically.

The recording of the webinar is available on our website.

This event was co-sponsored by the Institute for Global Studies as part of the Election Education Series.

The IHRC's Graduate Student Group (GSG), a community of interdisciplinary student scholars in immigration and migration fields, will be convening at the Immigration History Research Center on Wednesday, September 18, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. in Andersen Library Room 308. The students will have an opportunity to meet with the new IHRC director, Dr. Llana Barber, and exchange ideas for future workshops and presentations by and for GSG members. The IHRC formed the GSG group two years ago to create a university-wide interdisciplinary graduate student community, connect students with internal and external resources, and provide a space for them to meet and share their work. The GSG is open to all graduate students in immigration-related studies.

Those interested in joining or learning more about the group can contact Ibrahim Hirsi at hirsi004@umn.edu.  

Hub Residencies support community-based collaborative projects that engage a topic of important public interest and involve at least one community partner and one person affiliated with the University of Minnesota's College of Liberal Arts.

The IHRC is pleased to be sponsoring Quilting Stories: Remapping Twin Cities Narratives with Black Elders and Ecuadorian Migrants. The project expands on oral histories shared by local Black elders and on storytelling workshops with Indigenous Ecuadorian elementary school students. It brings together personal stories with broader scholarly framings to make Black Twin Cities history more visible and to nuance polarizing migration narratives.

Both initiatives remap Twin Cities histories from the perspectives of underrepresented BIPOC communities and weave a "quilt" of stories that offers a range of perspectives on the migration experience from children and adults, as well as experts in the political economic systems that fuel migration. Project partners include Maria Asp, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Speaking Out Collective; Co-founder, Million Artist Movement and Sonja Kuftinec, Professor of Theatre Arts & Dance at UMN.

The list of all of this year's residencies is available here.

Andrés Pérez, Dos Mundos, digital photograph, 2023.

Community-created mural based on Blues for George stencil by artist Seitu Jones, 202. Springboard for the Arts, St. Paul, 96 x 116 in. Photo: Easton M. Green.

Viewfinders/Miradores is a photography exhibit featuring eleven Minnesota Latinx immigrant photographers. When making images, viewfinders enable photographers to see, compose, and focus. Latinx immigrant artists are also themselves view finders -- challenging perceptions, redefining realities, and reshaping the world around them. Works included by Silvana Agostoni, Sebastian Alfonzo, Mikha Dominguez, Martha Gabriela Dreissen, Selma Fernández Richter, Nicolas Jaramillo, Andrés Pérez, Rio Pérez, Lucino Sosa, Zavier Tavera, and Irving Vazquez. The photographs coupled with oral histories excerpts in the exhibition are presented by Serpentina Arts and curated by Sebastian Alfonzo, Maria Cristina Tavera, and Jessica Lopez Lyman.

During the uprising following the murder of George Floyd, business owners across the Twin Cities began to cover their storefronts with sheets of plywood which were soon turned into powerful messages and murals by artists, protestors, and community. Art and Artifact: Murals from the Minneapolis Uprising, curated by Amira McLendon, features a selection of the murals. The goal is for the exhibition to encourage people to reflect on where we are now as we approach the fifth year since George Floyd's murder.

For more information, see the gallery website here.

Photography narratives of MN Latinx Immigrants led by Serpentina Arts and Memorialize the Movement Presents: Community Creates were both recipients of Liberal Arts Engagement Hub residencies in 2023-2024.