Refugees and Migrants - History Courses

HISTORY

Making Newark in Post-War America: Migration, Diversity, and Culture in the City (21:510:490) Spring 2018
Professor: Eva Giloi
This research seminar examines Newark in the 1950s-1970s, with its rich history of migration, diverse neighborhoods and cultural heritage, vibrant social networks, and local community engagement. It also looks at the strains that the city faced in those decades. Rutgers represents a pivotal place in this story: in 1959, Rutgers President Mason Gross said that New Jersey was “culturally almost bankrupt,” and that he was going to build a new campus in Newark to help free New Jersey from its cultural dependence on New York and Philadelphia. But like other post-war American cities, Newark faced social and economic problems as well: declining industry and jobs, institutional racism, and middle-class flight into the suburbs. These problems culminated in five days of violent civil unrest in 1967 that set armed troops against local residents. The story of Newark highlights many of the issues that we still face today: how cities grow and contract; questions of social justice, profiling, discriminatory practices, and institutional racism; how a city can become a sanctuary to a diverse set of social groups; and how community engagement and active citizenship can shape the course of history. Open to history majors.

 

GRADUATE: American Immigration (26:510:586) Spring 2018
Professor: Steven Diner 
This course examines the history of immigration to cities and urban areas of the United States since the nineteenth century. It will consider the causes of immigration, the social, cultural and economic adaptation of various groups, return migration, the significance of race, the varied experience of different immigrant groups, the development of ethnic group identities, changing American policy and attitudes towards immigrants and ethnic groups, and the impact of immigration and ethnicity on American society and culture.