December 14, 2009

Professor Young traveling Oregon to discuss immigration issues

Professor Elliott Young is traveling around Oregon, leading discussions about immigration and globalization. Learn more in this Oregon Humanities article, “A Borderless World.”

As a scholar-facilitator in Oregon Humanities’ Conversation Project: A New Chautauqua, Associate Professor of History Elliott Young is traveling around the state, leading discussions about the impacts of immigration and globalization on local communities.

In a profile of Young in Oregon Humanities magazine, he said: “I’m a little tired of speaking to the people who already agree with me. I think you’ve got to confront the real issues that people have about immigration, and talk about alternatives to policies of deportation and criminalization, which have been tried for a hundred years and don’t really stop immigrants from coming.”

Young, director of Latin American Studies and Ethnic Studies, is a transnational historian of the Americas, specializing in race and national identity. In spring, 2008 he taught a course on migration patterns of Mexicans from southern-most Mexico to Portland, Oregon. Students in the course spent their spring break in locations along the migration route, connecting with local nonprofit organizations working with migrants and learning about the social and political issues tied to migration.

You can learn about the course in this story, Bringing Immigration Policy to Life.