Expert Alert
March 2006

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Immigration Debate
March 27, 2006

More than 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, and proposed legislation by the House of Representatives prompted massive protests this weekend. University of Minnesota experts who can talk about the immigration debate are:

Joel Wurl, associate director, U of M Immigration History Research Center
Wurl is the head of research collections and associate director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, where he has worked since 1985. He is an adviser to public programs, exhibits, and historical preservation projects and has presented and published research on several topics related to immigration. He has spoken to a diverse array of community audiences on the immigrant experience in America and, particularly, in the state of Minnesota.

Katherine Fennelly, professor at the U’s Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs
Fennelly’s areas of expertise include immigration and public policy as well as diversity and cross-cultural relations. Her research and outreach interests also include human rights of immigrants and refugees in the United States.

Erika Lee, associate professor of history at the U
Lee’s research and teaching focus on immigration and 20th century U.S. history. She has published widely on the topic of defining the United States as a “nation of immigrants” and a “gate-keeping nation.” She argues that this definition “has never been more true than in the twenty-first century. Immigrants continue to be at the center of changes in American society, politics, economy, and culture. And immigration laws and policies continue to figure prominently in changing ideologies of national identity, citizenship, and race, as well as technologies of national security and border control.”

Louis Mendoza, associate professor and chair of the department of Chicano studies
Mendoza’s research interests include Chicana/o literary and cultural studies and U.S. immigration literature.

To interview any of the experts above, contact Asim Dorovic at 612-624-0214 or at dorovic@umn.edu.

Human Trafficking
March 23, 2006

In recent weeks, several cases of human trafficking have surfaced in Minnesota. This increase in labor and sex trafficking has prompted a number of human rights organizations to increase their efforts in this area. University of Minnesota experts who can discuss the issue of human trafficking are:

Barbara Frey, director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota
She was elected in 2000 as an alternate member of the U.N. Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, a body of independent experts who advise the United Nations on human rights policy. Frey has taught international human rights at the University of Minnesota in both the Law School and the Institute for Global Studies since 1989. She is an expert on the issue of human trafficking and will also be organizing a conference on April 21, 2006: “United Front for Children: Global Efforts to Combat Sexual Trafficking of Children in Travel and Tourism.”

Lauren Gilchrist, outreach coordinator for the University of Minnesota’s Deborah E. Powell Center for Women’s Health
The Powell Center is a member of the Minnesota Human Trafficking Watch, and Gilchrist assists in coordinating training, conducting public education and outreach, and providing comprehensive services to victims of trafficking in Minnesota.

David Weissbrodt, professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School
Professor David S. Weissbrodt is a distinguished and widely published scholar of international human rights law. He established the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and helped establish the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library.

To interview Frey, Gilchrist or Weissbrodt, contact Asim Dorovic at 612-624-0214 or at dorovic@umn.edu.