Spring 2013 Immigration Workshop

Ellis Island v. Angel Island: Teaching Inclusion and Exclusion in the American Immigrant Experience

The seminar will look at immigration to the United States between 1880 and 1920, the era during which millions of immigrants came to America from Europe and Asia. This huge influx of foreigners created anxiety among many Americans who feared that the immigrants would bring undesirable changes to the political, economic, and cultural traditions of the nation. Their concerns about changing race, class, and gender dynamics shaped anti-immigrant arguments and policies, especially those directed at the procedures used at immigration centers on New York’s Ellis Island, and Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. The goal of the seminar will be to create teaching strategies that provide students with the content knowledge and analytic skills needed to compare the European immigrant experience at Ellis Island with that of the Asian immigrant experience at Angel Island. Dr. Battisti has selected Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America as the foundation of her workshop discussion.

Dr. Battisti specializes in American immigration and ethnic history. The focus of her research has been the role played by the nation’s immigrant and ethnic groups in shaping American immigration policies. Her dissertation will be published as "Americans All? Italian Americans and the Politics of Immigration Reform, 1945-1965.”

Before joining the faculty at UNO, Dr. Battisti taught at Colby College in Maine and Kalamazoo College in Michigan. She is the recipient of several grants and awards, including the Immigration and Ethnic History Society’s George Pozzetta Dissertation Award.

Please contact Prof. Jo Behrens to register by 4 PM, March 4, 2013.

Dr. Battisti's Faculty webpage