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Jana Lipman
Associate Professor of History, Tulane University

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Jana Lipman
Associate Professor of History, Tulane University
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
AREAS OF TEACHING
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
BIO
Jana K. Lipman is an Associate Professor of History at Tulane University. She is the author of In Camps: Vietnamese Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Repatriates (UC Press 2020) and Guantanamo: A Working-Class History between Empire and Revolution (UC Press, 2009). She writes widely about U.S. refugee policy, immigration, and U.S. military basing.
EXTENDED PROFILE
Jana Lipman is an Associate Professor at Tulane University in History. She is an expert in U.S. refugee history, U.S. military basing, U.S. foreign relations, and the relationship between immigration and labor. Her book, Guantánamo: A Working-Class History between Empire and Revolution, 1939-1979 (University California Press, 2009) was the 2009 Co-Winner of the Taft Prize in Labor History. Her second book, In Camps: Vietnamese Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Repatriates, 1975-2005 was published by University of California Press in 2020.
Her publications also include Making the Empire Work: Labor and U.S. Imperialism (co-edited with Daniel E. Bender, NYU Press, 2015), Ship of Fate: A Memoir of a Vietnamese Repatriate by Tran Dinh Tru (co-translated with Bac Hoai Tran, University of Hawaii Press, 2017), and a co-edited Special Issue on militarism and tourism in American Quarterly with Vernadette Gonzalez and Teresia Teaiwa (2016). Her scholarly work has appeared in American Quarterly, Diplomatic History, Immigrants and Minorities, the Journal of Asian American Studies, the Journal of American Ethnic History, the Journal of Military History, the Modern American History, and the Radical History Review.
In the public sphere, She has advised the Guantánamo Public Memory Project, the Humanities Action Lab (Rutgers, Newark), and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. Her essays have also appeared in the Washington Post’s Made by History series, the New Orleans Times Picayune, History News Network, and the Conversation.com, and her commentary has appeared in numerous media outlets including NPR, the New York Times, and the Christian Science Monitor.
PROJECTS AND EXHIBITIONS
Adviser, “More than a Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Fishing Community,” New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, 2019-2021
Adviser, Guantanamo Public Memory Project, 2011-2014.
AWARDS
INTERVIEWS
New Books Podcast: In Camps: Vietnamese Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Repatriates
https://newbooksnetwork.com/jana-k-lipman-in-camps-vietnamese-refugees-asylum-seekers-and-repatriates-u-california-press-2020
IEHS Authors on Authors
Op Eds and Essays
“ ‘The day I start being free’: Detained migrants struggle for human rights,” History News Network, July 12, 2020 https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/176375
“Coronavirus exacerbates plight of asylum seekers in Louisiana,” The Advocate, June 19, 2020, Co-authored with Olivia Mancing, https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/article_fae78042-b027-11ea-b6c4-6fa7453aa9f7.html
“Why Hong Kong’s untold history of protecting refugee rights matters now in its struggle with China,” The Conversation.com, June 4, 2020, https://theconversation.com/why-hong-kongs-untold-history-of-protecting-refugee-rights-matters-now-in-its-struggle-with-china-139642
“Detaining refugee children on U.S. bases may sound un-American, but it’s been done before,” The Conversation.com, June 18, 2019, http://www.theconversation.com
“Welcome Home: Benjamin Morris Discusses Immigration with Jana Lipman and Sarah Fouts,” Room 220, May 14, 2019, https://www.antenna.works/welcome-home-benjamin-morris-discusses-immigration-with-jane-lipman-and-sarah-fouts/
“Five things to know about Guantánamo Bay on its 115th Birthday,” The Conversation.com, December 10, 2018, http://www.theConversation.com
“U.S. military bases used to welcome foreign refugees. Now, they’re being used to scare away migrants,” July 5, 2018, Washington Post, Made by History series, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history
“The South Vietnamese who fled the fall of Saigon and those who returned,” The Conversation.com, September 19, 2017, http://www.theconversation.com
“Historians Put Immigration Executive Order in Historical Context,” Process, OAH Blogpost, February 6, 2017 http://www.processhistory.org/immigration-executive-order-panel/
“Lusher Teachers, not Parents should make the Union decision, Uptownmessenger.com, April 19, 2016.
Additional Media
Interviewed, published, consulted and/or cited in multiple media outlets, including: C-SPAN, Christian Science Monitor, Correio Braziliense, New York Times, New Books Network podcast, NPR affiliates, O Estado de Sao Paolo, PBS: Finding your Routes with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Tokyo Chunichi Newspapers, and the Washington Post.
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