KINGSTON, R.I. -- October 6, 2003 -- A panel of experts on immigration, ethnicity and urban populations will discuss "Providence and Globalization" on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the University of Rhode Island’s Feinstein Providence Campus, 80 Washington St.
The program, part of URI’s Honors Colloquium, "The Futures of Globalization," begins at 7 p.m. in the Paff Auditorium, and like all colloquium programs, is free and open to the public.
URI Professor of Economics Rick McIntyre, one of the colloquium’s organizers, said the panel will examine the Immigrant and Nationality Act of 1965, which expanded immigration opportunities to individuals outside Western Europe. McIntyre said the 1965 lawmakers never imagined how wars in Southeast Asia and Central America would affect immigration in this country. The panel will also examine stereotypes of Asia-Americans in popular culture as well as how Americans think about race and ethnicity in a society that has clearly moved beyond being black and white. "These issues will be linked to the remarkable transformation in the City of Providence through the participation of Mayor David Cicciline and the audience," McIntyre said.
The program is co-sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and AS220 and their series Action Speaks, for broadcast later on Rhode Island’s public radio station, WRNI.
Joel Rawson, senior vice president and executive editor of The Providence Journal will introduce the panel. Members of the roundtable are: Mayor Cicilline; Ronald Fernandez, professor of sociology and director of Caribbean studies at Central Connecticut State University and author of America’s Banquet of Cultures: Harnessing Race, Ethnicity and Immigration in the 21st Century; and Robert Lee, professor of American studies at Brown University, and author of Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture.
The moderator will be Marc Levitt, host of "Action Speaks." Levitt has extensive experience as a documentary filmmaker, oral historian, performer, and educator. He currently serves as director of the Charles N. Fortes Magnet School Museum Project in Providence, where students are creating their own museum based on the history of their families and their region.
Please visit www.uri.edu/hc for the most current colloquium information and full schedule of events and directions, or contact the URI Honors Center at 401-874-2381 or debg@uri.edu.
The URI Honors Colloquium’s major sponsors are: the URI Honors Program and President’s Office, The Providence Journal, Fidelity Investments, URI Foundation, URI College of Arts and Sciences and the URI College of Business Administration. Major sponsors of Action Speaks are URI, Johnson and Wales, RICH, the Rhode Island School of Design, The Providence Phoenix, and Aaronson, Lavoie and Streitfeld.
