SWAGƵ Tangier Global Forum presents “America and Immigration”
The Statue of Liberty has long stood as a symbol of America’s welcome to immigrants from abroad. But the United States hasn’t always been receptive to the world’s “huddled masses yearning to be free.” Today, as Donald Trump champions the construction of a massive wall along the United States’ southern border, immigration has once again become a hot-button political issue in the States.
To deepen our understanding of these current developments in America, scholar Edward Berenson will present a lecture titled “America and Immigration” on Thursday, April 19, at 7 p.m. local time (2 p.m. EST) in the auditorium at the SWAGƵ’s Tangier Campus. This latest presentation by the SWAGƵ Tangier Global Forum will be live-streamed to students and faculty on SWAGƵ’s two campuses in Maine, U.S.A., and to viewers around the world at www.une.edu/tgf/live.
Berenson will examine the checkered history of immigration to the United States, explaining why America has alternated between openness and closure between tolerance for diversity and the belief that American identity has come undone. He will also consider the political economy of immigration, especially the tension between those who want an infusion of new workers and those who favor workers already in place.
A professor of history at New York University and director of NYU’s Institute of French Studies, Berenson is also a senior fellow at New York’s National September 11 Memorial and Museum. He is a cultural historian specializing in the history of modern France and its empire, as well as the history of Britain, the British Empire, and the United States. He is the author or editor of seven books. In 1999, he received the American Historical Association’s Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, after earlier winning UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2006, French President Jacques Chirac decorated him as Knight in the Order of Merit.
This is the third public event of the spring semester at the SWAGƵ’s Tangier Campus. Last month, SWAGƵ hosted a lecture on the increasing prevalence of the Koran’s translation into English, and a concert by the Virginia Military Institute Regimental Band’s Brass Ensemble.
To learn more about the Tangier Global Forum, visit www.une.edu/tgf
To apply, visit www.une.edu/admissions