Engage Immigration Conference

June 14-15, 2018

St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

About the Conference

The Engage Immigration conference gathers liberal arts college faculty and staff for an interdisciplinary network-building opportunity focused on sharing best practices in community based-learning, scholarship and engagement with immigrants and immigration-contexts. Sessions during our day and a half long conference include:

  • Plenary address from an accomplished public scholar in immigration studies
  • Hands-on workshops to share information on ethical concerns, questions and best practices; course design; public data sets (quantitative and qualitative); digital scholarship; and public history outreach
  • Interactive introductions from all conference participants introducing their own research & projects, to facilitate networking
  • Collaboration exploration and planning sessions focused on specific opportunities (e.g., grants, journal CFPs and conferences)

Engage Immigration Community of Practice

With generous support from an Associated Colleges of the Midwest Faculty Career Enhancement (ACM FaCE) grant, Kathy Tegtmeyer Pak (St. Olaf College), Adrienne Falcon (Metropolitan State University, formerly Carleton College), and Emily Bowman (Coe College) have brought together colleagues Xavier Escandell (Grinnell College), Catherine Denial (Knox College), and Timothy Gaster (Monmouth University) for a year-long effort to learn from each other and build a shared knowledge-base about ethically responsible, engaged immigration research and related academic projects.  Our conversations have focused on new immigrant destinations, pedagogy for on and off-campus courses (domestically and internationally) addressing immigration-related topics, and ethical questions raised in community-based learning and research involving immigrants. We intend for this conference to broaden our network and facilitate additional collaboration across ACM colleges and our surrounding community partners and related organizations in the Midwest. Participants can expect to leave the conference with new ideas and tools for publicly-minded teaching and research related to immigration.

FINAL Conference Schedule Linked

Draft Schedule

Thursday & Friday breakfasts, lunches, and Thursday dinner will be provided free of charge to registered participants from ACM institutions.

Thursday, June 14

Breakfast at Stav Hall,                                           7:00-8:45AM

Speed introductions & networking                     9:00-10:00AM

Part I: Inspiration

Keynote speaker: Dr. Erika Lee                            10:15-12:00PM

Lunch                                                                        12:00-1:00PM

Part II: Teaching

Workshop 1: Ethics                                                  1:00-2:30PM

Break                                                                          2:30-2:45PM

Workshop 2: Best Practices                                    2:45-4:15PM

Dinner                                                                        5:00-6:00PM

Film                                                                            7:30-9:00PM

Friday, June 15

Breakfast at Stav Hall                                              7:00-8:45AM

Part III: Do

Workshop 3: Data Sources                                       9:00-10:15AM

Workshop 4: Future Collaborations                       10:45-12:00PM

Closing comments during lunch                             12:00-1:00PM

Keynote Speaker

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Erika Lee as the keynote speaker for the Engage Immigration conference. Erika Lee is the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History and Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Her scholarly specialties are migration, race and ethnicity, Asian Americans, and immigration law and public policy.  An active public scholar, she has written two books, The Making of Asian America: A History and Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. We look forward to hearing her speak about her professional and personal path. Visit her website for more information.