Master of Liberal Arts & Science
Saturday University for Spring 2012
Immigration & its Impact on Nashville
February 4, 11, 18, & 25, 2012
Vanderbilt is pleased to announce its next offering of Saturday University for Spring 2012: “Immigration & Its Impact on Nashville.” This spring’s series is presented in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies.
Saturday University--designed for inquisitive adult learners to help them rediscover the joy of education for its own sake, without entrance exams, homework assignments, or final papers--was instituted as a way of presenting academic outreach to our community. Saturday University is designed to fill the niche between the single lecture and a full degree program. A lecture series held on four Saturday mornings, this is a non-degree program designed for adult learners in the community who want to sharpen their own engagement in lifelong learning.
We hear that America is a land of immigrants, but is also a nation of laws. There is no shortage of slogans and recommendations: Secure our borders; make English the official language; enforce current immigration laws; build the fence along the Mexican border; protect our citizens from illegal immigration; deporting 12 million people is ridiculous and impractical; no amnesty; and comprehensive immigration reform.
This spring, Vanderbilt's Saturday University will focus on Immigration, a continuing and contentious issue that will be in the foreground this political season. Participants will have the opportunity to hear distinguished Vanderbilt faculty drawing on their extensive research provide analytical and reasoned insights into this issue.
February 4: Professor Katharine Donato (Chair of the Sociology department) focuses her research on International Migration between Mexico and the United States, Social Determinants of Health, Immigrants in the U.S. Economy, Ethnic and Gender Stratification. In her lecture, she provides a sociological overview of immigration and explains Nashville’s immigrant population in comparison to other metropolitan areas. The age, gender, education / skill level of Nashville’s immigrant community poses special problems and insights.
February 11: Professor Robert Barsky leads the Robert Penn Warren Seminar on Literature and the Law and received the Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award this academic year. Refugee, Border and Migration Studies are among his research interests. His session will include a panel of legal experts exploring the varied legal and social implications affecting immigrants and their families in Nashville.
February 18: Gary Gerstle is the James G. Stahlman Professor of American History. A historian of the twentieth-century United States, his research has particular emphasis on politics and society; immigration, ethnicity, and nationality; and labor. His lecture will focus on the history of immigration to America, and how the current moment is similar to or different from historical patterns. His lecture is entitled: "America's Encounter with Immigrants: Past, Present, and Future."
February 25: Jemima Pierre, Assistant Professor in the Program in African American and Diaspora Studies, is an anthropologist whose research focuses on Postcolonial African cultural phenomena and communities of Caribbean and African immigrants in the U.S. Her lecture, "The Significance of Black International Migration to the U.S.," will cover the history of Black migration from Africa and the Caribbean to the U.S. as well as explore the unique challenges that this group of immigrants both pose for researchers and policy makers. The session will also entail a discussion of immigration and minority group relations.
This compelling and exhilarating set of sessions is sure to be a Saturday University that no one will want to miss.
All lectures will be held in Cohen Hall 203, situated on the eastern end of campus. Lectures will be held over four consecutive Saturdays. Each session will include lecture, plus Q&A, from 9:30 until 11:30 on February 4, 11,18 & 25 . The fee is $50. Space is limited for this Saturday University, so please send in your registration soon.
For more information, contact Martin Rapisarda,
associate dean for Arts & Science, at 615.343.3140
or martin.rapisarda@vanderbilt.edu.