American Immigration (305-0-20)

Instructors

Shana Bernstein
847/467-6850
620 Lincoln #205

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G01: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Legal_St 305 "American Immigration", Also taught with HISTORY 305 Prof. Shana Bernstein, Fall 2026 This course introduces students to the social, political, legal, and cultural history of immigration in the United States. In addition to exploring the history of southern and eastern European immigrants, it uses a comparative framework to integrate Latin American and Asian migrants into our understanding of immigration since the late nineteenth century. The course is an exploration of major themes in immigration history rather than a comprehensive examination. Issues students will consider include immigration law, acculturation, community, racial formation, victimization vs. agency, religion, politics, gender, the transnational and international context of immigration, and competing notions of citizenship/nationality, among others. Attendance is mandatory on the first day of class.

Registration Requirements

Attendance at first class mandatory.

Learning Objectives

We have six primary objectives in this course: 1) To gain an analytic framework for understanding the processes by which immigrants have helped create and recreate their own and the United States' culture and society. 2) To understand the ways in which law has structured (and been structured by) the immigration experience, including to engage with scholarship describing the historical structures, processes, and practices that shape racism and anti-racism; power and resistance; justice and injustice; equality and inequality; and belonging and subjection. 3) To acquire knowledge of historical phenomena (U.S. legal, social, political, cultural, and social practices and their interdependent development over time in their local, regional, and global contexts) as examined through immigration and migration. 4) To develop skills of historical analysis, including the means to evaluate sources and become acquainted with scholarly historical debates and discussion. 5) To help students acquire historical perspective on the present, think and communicate critically about historical and contemporary society and politics, and appreciate the impact of historical developments in immigration history and in the historical study of immigration. 6) To foster analytical, reading, discussion and writing skills and learn to express the results of historical investigation effectively and persuasively in written, oral, and visual forms, and engage in debate with current and past interpreters of history.

Class Materials (Suggested)

Natalia Molina, How Race is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts, UC Press 2014 ISBN 978-0-520-28008-3 Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, Princeton 9780691160825 Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers, 3rd edition, Persea Books, 2003, ISBN 0892552905 Additional materials available via Canvas.

Class Notes

History Major Concentration(s): Americas
History Minor Concentration(s): United States

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Registration is restricted to History Majors and Minors only until the end of pre-registration, after which time enrollment will be open to everyone who has taken the prerequisites (if any) Registration restricted to undergraduate students only. Antirequisite: Student may not receive credit for both LEGAL_ST 305-0 and HISTORY 305-0.