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2007 Post Convention Workshop Immigration History Research Center Invites Attendees to Workshop |
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OAH annual meeting attendees are invited to a workshop, "Immigration Historians and the Media," Sunday afternoon, April 1, 2007, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Immigration History Research Center on the West Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota. Transportation from downtown hotels and to airport will be provided; free lunch onsite. The immediate goals of this workshop are twofold. It will introduce historians to the perspectives and every-day challenges of those in the media who work on issues relating to immigration. Second, it will provide immigration historians an opportunity to share with each other, and with others in the media, their own experiences in working with the media on immigration issues. Historian James Gregory of the University of Washington will report on his research on how the media used scholarly expertise on the great southern migrations of an earlier era. Members of the media, including Associated Press reporter Greg Aamot and local film and radio producers will be in attendance at the workshop. Often, media representatives must work hard to identify the appropriate specialists and then to capture their insights in useable form. Scholars are sometimes reluctant to speak freely with those from the media, in part because they fear the intellectual, personal, and political consequences of seeing their complex, and often subtle forms of historical interpretation reduced to a fifteen-second “sound bite” or to a short quotation taken out of context. Yet historians also recognize that the media help them to reach audiences far larger than even the largest university lecture hall. Ultimately the purpose of the workshop is to facilitate better and closer communication between the scholarly “experts” who sometimes feel isolated in their university “ivory towers” and the deadline-driven media specialists with their access to audiences and readerships far beyond the academic community. What structures might universities create to foster better and more productive communication between historians and the media? What “best media practices” could facilitate the development of a better dialogue between university and media workers? Space is limited for the workshop, so please register in advance by email to drg@umn.edu. Transportation and lunch will be provided for this workshop. About the Immigration History Research Center The IHRC is an interdisciplinary center in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. Founded in 1965, the IHRC promotes research on migration with a special emphasis on immigration to the U.S. It brings scholar-specialists from the University into dialogue with university and high school students and their teachers, with print and non-print media workers, and with communities of immigrants, ethnic Americans, and concerned citizens. The IHRC especially seeks to enrich contemporary debates—so often heated and so often emotional when the subject is immigration—with historical and scholarly perspectives. The IHRC is proud to have built one of the largest and most important collections of materials on U.S. immigration and refugee life to be found anywhere in the world. It welcomes researchers from the University, from Minnesota communities, and beyond, from the nation and the world. Our researchers come from all parts of the country as well as from abroad. The IHRC is located in Andersen Library on the West Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota, 222 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis. |
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