Mae M. Ngai, professor of history at Columbia University, will deliver the annual Robert B. Walz Lecture 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 20 at the Foundation Hall in the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center on the Southern Arkansas University campus. Dr. Ngai’s address is “Illegal Immigration: Origins and Consequences.”
Dr. Ngai’s research and publications have explored the development of American immigration policy and demonstrated how past decisions continue to influence the current debates over immigration.
In 2004 Princeton University Press published her Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. This book won numerous awards as a ground-breaking study. It detailed how the identification of those who would be considered “illegal immigrants” emerged over time due to changing labor demands and assumptions about foreign workers.
A review of Impossible Subjects in the Los Angeles Times noted, “Ngai’s undeniable premise–as pertinent today as ever–is that the lawfully regulated part of our immigration system is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Dr. Ngai’s next book, Breaking the Rules: The Making of the Chinese American Middle Class, will be published by Houghton Mifflin. This volume will trace the story of a Chinese immigrant family from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century.
Dr. Ngai taught at Bard College and the University of Chicago before taking her position at Columbia University. She earned her Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. She has been awarded fellowships by the Huntington Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the New York University School of Law.
Dr. Ngai’s presentation at Southern Arkansas University is part of the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecture Program.
Dr. Robert Walz taught history at SAU from 1958 to 1987 and was recognized as a leading scholar of Arkansas history. The Walz Lectureship was established in 1995 with a bequest from the estate of Mrs. Curtistine A. Walz, in honor of her husband’s long service to the university.
The Walz lecture is free and open to the public. A reception for Dr. Ngai will follow in the Reynolds Center.
