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S. Deborah Kang
John L. Nau III Associate Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy, University of Virginia
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S. Deborah Kang
John L. Nau III Associate Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy, University of Virginia
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
AREAS OF TEACHING
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
BIO
S. Deborah Kang is John L. Nau III Associate Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on both the historical and contemporary aspects of US immigration and border policy.
Her first book, The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954 (Oxford University Press, 2017) traces the history of US immigration agencies on the US-Mexico border and earned six awards and accolades, including the Henry Adams Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government, the Theodore Saloutos Book Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize, the W. Turrentine Jackson Award from the Western History Association, and the Americo Paredes Book Award for Best Nonfiction Book on Chicano/a, Mexican American and/or Latino/a Studies. It was also recognized as a Finalist for the 2018 Weber-Clements Book Prize by the Western History Association.
She is currently preparing a second monograph on the history of US immigration legalization policies from the early twentieth century to the present and, with historian Danielle Battisti, an edited volume on the history of undocumented European migration to the United States.
Kang has provided expert commentary for documentary filmmakers and major media outlets and is available for interviews on topics related to immigration law and policy, immigration history, and the US-Mexico border.
EXTENDED PROFILE
S. Deborah Kang is John L. Nau III Associate Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy in the Corcoran Department of History and the Karsh Institute at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on both the historical and contemporary aspects of US immigration and border policy.
Her first book, The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954 (Oxford University Press, 2017) traces the history of US immigration agencies on the US-Mexico border and earned six awards and accolades, including the Henry Adams Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government, the Theodore Saloutos Book Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize, the W. Turrentine Jackson Award from the Western History Association, and the Americo Paredes Book Award for Best Nonfiction Book on Chicano/a, Mexican American and/or Latino/a Studies. It was also recognized as a Finalist for the 2018 Weber-Clements Book Prize by the Western History Association.
She is currently preparing a second monograph on the history of US immigration legalization policies from the early twentieth century to the present and, with historian Danielle Battisti, an edited volume on the history of undocumented European migration to the United States.
The recipient of two teaching awards from Harvard University, Kang has taught courses on western and borderlands history as well as Asian American, Chicano/a, Native American, immigration, and legal history. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on historical research methods. As a result of her participation in the 2015-2016 NEH-sponsored Digital Pedagogy Workshop, both her undergraduate and graduate courses occasionally offer students an introduction to the digital humanities and tools such as StoryMap JS and Scalar.
Kang is currently serving a three-year term as the chair of the Committee on Assault Response and Educational Strategies for the Western History Association (WHA-CARES), an organization dedicated to ending campus sexual harassment. She is also a member of the Dallas-Forth Worth Scholars Strategy Network, the executive board of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, and the editorial boards of the David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History at the University of North Carolina Press, the Western Historical Quarterly and Western Legal History: The Journal of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society.
Kang has provided expert commentary for documentary filmmakers and major media outlets and is available for interviews on topics related to immigration law and policy, immigration history, and the US-Mexico border. She also particularly enjoys speaking to general audiences about immigration, western, and legal history.
RESEARCH
BOOKS
S. Deborah Kang, The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).
ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
Tom K. Wong, Ph.D., S. Deborah Kang, Ph.D., Carolina Valdivia, M.A., Josefina Espino, Michelle Gonzalez, Elia Peralta, “How Interior Immigration Enforcement Erodes Trust in Law Enforcement,” Perspectives on Politics, vol. 17, n. 4 (2019), 1-14.
S. Deborah Kang, “Implementation: How the Borderlands Redefined Federal Immigration Law and Policy, 1917-1924,” California Legal History: Journal of the California Supreme Court Historical Society, vol. 7 (2012).
S. Deborah Kang, “Jon Gjerde’s Immigrant America,” in Norwegian American Essays 2010, edited by Øyvind Gulliksen (Oslo: Novus Forlag, 2011).
S. Deborah Kang, “Crossing the Line: The INS and the Federal Regulation of the Mexican Border,” in Bridging National Borders in North America, edited by Andrew Graybill and Benjamin Heber Johnson (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2010).
AWARDS
INTERVIEWS
“Big immigration changes planned in U.S.,” KRLD News (Dallas), January 22, 2021.
“’Dreamer’ shares hopes, fears as Biden administration drafts legislation to protect DACA recipients,” WFAA ABC 8 (Dallas), January 22, 2021.
“The Trump administration has used the coronavirus threat to swiftly kick more than 200,000 immigrants out of the U.S.,” Dallas Morning News, October 17, 2020.
“CBP Drones Conducted Flyovers Near Homes of Indigenous Pipeline Activists, Flight Records Show,” Gizmodo, September 18, 2020.
“Immigration Historian Says Border Patrol’s Role In Protest Law Enforcement Is Troubling,” Texas Standard, June 12, 2020
“ICE Raids Begin in Select Cities,” Wisconsin Public Radio, July 16, 2019
“Border Apprehensions: Looking to the past to understand the current spike in illegal crossings,” San Diego Union Tribune, June 23, 2019
Comment on Trump administration’s policy on deportation of Vietnamese refugees, BBC Newsday, December 14, 2018
“The US Begins Mass Deportation of Mexican Migrants,” “7 Moments that Changed America,” Time Magazine (print), July 9, 2018
“What’s Driving the Movement to Abolish ICE?” PBS Newshour (online), July 6, 2018
“’Abolish ICE’ Movement is Growing. Is the Agency’s Disbanding Likely?” Politifact, July 3, 2018
“What Do You Want to Know about ICE?” 1A: Speak Freely, WAMU, National Public Radio, Washington, DC, July 3, 2018
“Immigration Nation,” Code Switch: Race and Identity Remixed, National Public Radio, June 27, 2018
Segment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Steele and Ungar, Sirius XM Radio, June 25, 2018
“15 Years After Its Creation Critics Want to Abolish ICE,” Here and Now, WBUR, National Public Radio, Boston, June 25, 2018
“California to Join Guard Border Mission, but with Conditions,” KPBS Midday Edition, KPBS, San Diego Public Radio, San Diego, California, April 12, 2018
“Border Security,” KPBS Evening Edition, KPBS, San Diego Public Television, San Diego, California, April 11, 2018
“Trump’s Mexico Border Wall,” Take Two, National Public Radio, Los Angeles/KPCC Affiliate, Pasadena, California, January 26, 2017.
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