Xenophobia and Immigration Restriction: Rethinking the Legacies of the 1924 Immigration Act Today

100 years ago this month, the United States passed one of the most restrictive immigration laws in its history. With immigration dominating the US presidential election today, historians are reconsidering the importance of the 1924 Immigration Act in US law and politics. Join historian Erika Lee (Harvard University and the University of Cambridge) as she offers some insight into the deep rooted history of xenophobia in the US and what is at stake as Americans head to the polls in the November.

One of the leading US immigration and Asian American historians, Erika Lee is the inaugural Bae Family Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumni Professor at Harvard University and past President of the Organization of American Historians. In 2023-2024, she is the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Everyone is welcome to what promises to be a very interesting lecture!