Roger Daniels

Immigration history expert to lecture Oct. 27 at UTSA

(Oct. 20, 2003)--The UTSA Department of History will host a lecture by Roger Daniels, Charles Phelps Taft Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Cincinnati, speaking on "Immigration after 9/11."

Free and open to all, the lecture is at 3:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 27 in Humanities and Social Sciences Building Room 2.02.04 on the UTSA 1604 Campus.

Pictured is Daniels with a recent University of Cincinnati mentoring award. He served as the dissertation adviser for 18 Ph.D. history students at the University of Cincinnati, and is renowned for his mentoring skills.

A former journalist, Daniels has written 14 volumes, mostly on immigration history and Japanese American internment during World War II, and published more than 100 articles and essays. He is past president of the Immigration History Society and the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Daniels, who is co-author of "Debating American Immigration, 1882-Present," refutes the arguments that too much immigration is bad because immigrants are an economic burden and take jobs away from native-born poor.

"The urban poor of modern America are not competitors for low-paying stoop labor jobs," said Daniels. "If immigrants don't take them, they will simply not get done, and the United States will become less and less agriculturally sufficient."

He also argues that immigrants bring economic and cultural benefits, and that an increasingly multicultural America will be better able to function in a global economy.

Daniels, who earned a Ph.D. in 1961 at UCLA, testified as an expert witness before the U.S. Senate and other governmental bodies, and was primary consultant for the Presidential Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, and as a member of the history committee that helped plan the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island.

Daniels has lectured widely in North America and Europe, and most recently served as the Fulbright Chair of North American Studies at Calgary. He was a Fulbright Professor at the University of Hamburg.

Additionally, the Department of History will host an open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 31 in Humanities and Social Sciences Building Room 4.04.06. The UTSA community is encouraged to attend the open house to enjoy refreshments and door prizes, and the opportunity to meet professors and learn about courses, internships, scholarships, career opportunities and the Phi Alpha Theta history honors society.

For more information, contact Wing Chung Ng, Department of History chair, at 210-458-4033.