Center for the History of the New America

See the latest list of Immigrant Studies Courses available for Fall 2013 here.

WHO ARE WE?

The Center for the History of the New America aims to make the University of Maryland the hub for understanding the long immigration history of this country, from 1500 to the present, and its connections to world history.

The Center will provide a distinctive institutional home for interdisciplinary and trans-national research, for training faculty and students, and for distributing information about the history of the immigrant experience to a broad public.

If you are interested in the study, the teaching, and the politics of the long history of immigration from a global perspective and want to learn more about The Center for the History of the New America at the University of Maryland you are in the right place!

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The Immigrant Life Course Research Program (ILCRP), established by Dr. Judith Freidenberg in 2000, seeks to build links between research and policy sectors to better understand the effects and outcomes of the recent flow of immigrants to the State of Maryland. Its research has concentrated on Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, where an increasingly diverse immigrant inflow has led to dramatic changes in the everyday life of neighborhoods.

As part of the ILCRP, a team of professors and student researchers from the University of Maryland have been conducting life history interviews with immigrants residing in Prince George's County. The result is 9 transcriptions of interviews and a 22-minute video titled, Immigrant Voices, co-produced by Drs. Judith Freidenberg and Gail Thakur.

To access this video, please click on "Life History Project" at http://www.anthropologyoftheimmigrantlifecourse.org/research.html

A life history is both a chronological account of the events making up a person's life and an intimate story used to construct an identity against the backdrop of the human condition. In fact, segments of our life stories are often shared in various social settings to construct an identity that we are comfortable with in our current living situations.

Through life histories collected by Prince George's County immigrants we have a basis to explore some of these constructions, focusing on different reasons why people decide to leave their homes, challenges associated with their migrations, and finally, thoughts concerning their new beginnings.

For More Information, please visit the Anthropology of the Immigrant Life Course Research Program at www.anthropologyoftheimmigrantlifecourse.org. You can also contact Judith Freidenberg by phone (301 405 1420) or email (jfreiden@anth.umd.edu).

Voices of Immigrants Archives

Title	Type of Recording	Transcripts	Audio/Video Recording
Immigrant Voices	Life Histories Video	Click to read	Betty Ann from Trinidad (part 1)

2115 Francis Scott Key College Park, MD 20742 (301) 405-4305 fax: (301) 314-9399 newamerica@umd.edu