Conceptualizing (Im-)migration and Making Sense of Diversity in post-WWII America
Tobias Brinkmann
Lunchtime Talk (lunch provided) - April 8, 2025, 12:00 pm
English Building 109 (608 S Wright St, Urbana, IL 61801)
RSVP is not required but encouraged (as261@illinois.edu)
Between the late 1920s and mid-1960s, several Jewish social scientists and humanities scholars laid the theoretical groundwork for ethnic and immigration studies in the United States. They came to the United States at a young age or were children of immigrants from Eastern Europe who later obtained positions at research universities. The concepts these scholars developed – terms such as acculturation, urbanism, assimilation, and cultural pluralism – reshaped the understanding of America as a pluralist society of immigrants. Their antisemitic exclusion in American academia explains why they avoided publishing about Jewish history, religion, and social life until the mid-1950s. Instead, they researched cultural differences, questioning the ideal of a homogeneous society and leading efforts to reimagine America as a diverse and inclusive society of immigrants.