This week I had the wonderful opportunity to talk about my
book, and many other related histories, stories, and ideas, at Suffolk
University and Wellesley College. So here are three follow ups to these
first of many talks in
what should be the most active and exciting year of my professional life:
1)
First, I have to say thanks
to my very hospitable and generous hosts at each institution. At Suffolk, my
talks were co-sponsored by the Asian Studies
program, the American
Studies program, and the Rosenberg Institute for
East Asian Studies; I owe particular thanks to Da Zheng, Ron Suleski, Pat Reeve, Allan Tow, and Yong Xue. At Wellesley, I
was the guest of Yoon
Sun Lee, and of the many programs (English, American Studies, Asian American Studies)
in which she works. And throughout both days, I benefited greatly from the
questions, responses, and ideas of numerous other faculty members and students
at both institutions.
2)
If I was excited about
this year of book talks before this week, I’m infinitely more so now—for many
reasons, but perhaps especially because of how much I could feel my ideas
shifting and growing throughout the talks, classes, and conversations. For
example, it was during my main talk at Suffolk that I articulated for the first
time my sense of why we need to remember the 1921
and 1924
Quota Acts just as fully as the Exclusion Act—because those broader, more
encompassing acts were just as exclusionary, in fact just extended the CEA’s
purpose to many more nationalities and communities; which means that American
immigration law itself developed, for its first century of existence (until the
1965
Immigration Act), based on principles of unfairness and inequity. That
seems well worth our remembering.
3)
Finally, I just wanted to
say hello to anybody who attended those talks and is visiting the blog for the
first time! The Monthly Recaps, under that Label at the right, are a good place
to get an overall sense of my posts over this blog’s nearly three years of
existence; so too are these
three birthday
special posts.
I’ve got upcoming weekly series on American stories connected to Gloucester
(MA), race and justice in American history, and cultural images of
the fall (seasonal and symbolic), among others. I’m also always looking for both
suggestions for other topics and focal points and ideas for Guest Posts, so
feel free to leave those in the comments or email them to me directly.
Welcome!
Next series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. If you’re new to the blog, please say hi and let me know what you’d be
interested in seeing here! Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment