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Brendan Shanahan
Lecturer; Associate Research Scholar, Yale University (History Department, Canadian Studies)

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Brendan Shanahan
Lecturer; Associate Research Scholar, Yale University (History Department, Canadian Studies)
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Immigration During the 19th Century, Immigration During the 20th Century, Nativism and Xenophobia, North American Migration
AREAS OF TEACHING
(North) American immigration and citizenship legal history; comparative U.S. and Canadian political history
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
BIO
EXTENDED PROFILE
RESEARCH
First Book: Disparate Regimes: Nativist Politics, Alienage Law, Citizenship Rights in the United States (OUP, 2025)
- Nativism, Xenophobia, and alienage law from the late-19th century to the mid-twentieth century.
- Comparative state political and legal history.
- Citizenship rights and the history of American citizenship.
- History of immigrant rights and intersection with history of civil rights of native-born populations (especially U.S.-born women)
- Topics include: noncitizen voting rights, anti-alien legislative apportionment schemes, blue-collar nativist hiring laws, anti-alien licensure measures, and marital expatriation and repatriation.
PROJECTS AND EXHIBITIONS
Second Book project, tentatively entitled: “A North American Movement: Canadianizing the Politics of Anti-Catholicism in the United States, 1875-1914.”
- Examines various moments and dimensions to American Anti-Catholic Politics in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, with a focus on the period between the late-1880s and early 1900s.
- Illustrates the many Canadian inspirations for and direct connections to American anti-Catholic politics.
- Topics include: (1) the state and Catholic/public education, (2) diplomatic relations (U.S.-Canada mostly, but also Britain, Ireland, and the Holy See), (3) immigration and immigrant rights, (4) nativist social movements and organizations, and (5) connections to transnational nationalist movements and ethno-linguistic organizations across borders.
AWARDS
(2023) Hilles Fund Early Scholar Publication Fund Grant, Yale University, (2019) Outstanding Dissertation Award, Immigration and Ethnic History Society, (2018–2019) Cromwell (Early Career Scholar) Fellowship, American Society for Legal History, (2016–2017) Graduate Division Dissertation Completion Fellowship, UC Berkeley, (2016) California Immigration Research Initiative Fellowship, UC San Diego, (2016) Fred J. Martin Jr. American Political History Award, UC Berkeley, (2016) Mike Synar Graduate Research Fellowship, UC Berkeley
INTERVIEWS
Interview Participant on Charlotte Talks, “The Impact Of The 2020 Census,” Charlotte NPR-WFAE 90.7, March 18, 2020. https://www.wfae.org/post/charlotte-talks-impact-2020-census#stream/0
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