History of Immigration

Harold Holzer
Winner of The 2015 Gilder-Lehrman Lincoln Prize, Holzer is one of the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era and serves as The Jonathan F. Fanton Director of Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute He has authored, co-authored or edited 55 books, including most recently Brought Forth on the Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration. A prolific writer and lecturer, and frequent guest on television, Holzer served for six years (2010–2016) as Chairman of The Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation. For the previous 10 years he co-chaired the U. S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC), appointed by President Clinton. President Bush awarded Holzer the National Humanities Medal in 2008. And in 2013, Holzer wrote an essay on Lincoln for the official program at the re-inauguration of President Obama. He is now chairman of The Lincoln Forum. In 1988, he received the George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. 

Cecilia Chien
As Professor of History at West Chester University, Dr. Chien is the department’s East Asia specialist (Ph.D., Harvard). During her graduate studies, she traveled in East Asia and lived in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan for several years. Before coming to WCU in 2005, she taught for 10 years in Hong Kong during its transition from British colony to Chinese sovereignty. Dr. Chien’s first book, Salt and State, was a study of merchant-state relations as seen in middle-imperial China’s salt industry from the 10th-13th centuries. Her new research involves regional and family history. Her ancestor, the king of a wealthy kingdom in the Yangzi delta in the 10th century, is the centerpiece of contemporary efforts to promote cultural heritage, nationalism and identity, environmental conservation, and global tourism. Dr. Chien teaches courses on pre-modern and modern East Asia, East Asian history and film, the Asian American diaspora, and world civilizations. She aims to spread the word on how the rich cultural traditions of Asia in the curriculum enhance liberal arts education and promote cross-cultural understanding in today’s mobile world of diverse societies. 

Vincent Cannato
At the University of Massachusetts Boston, Vincent J. Cannato is associate professor of history and teaches courses on New York City history, Boston history, immigration history, and twentieth-century American history. He is the author of American Passage: The History of Ellis Island; The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and his Struggle to Save New York; and co-editor of Living in the Eighties. Prof. Cannato has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New York Post, New York Daily News, National Affairs, Politico, Humanities Magazine, The Weekly Standard, and The New Republic. He has also received a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Apart from his academic career, Prof. Cannato was also managing editor of The Public Interest, co-edited by Irving Kristol and Nathan Glazer; co-producer of the PBS documentary “The First Measured Century”; an aide to former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler; and a speechwriter at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He received his PhD in History from Columbia University and his BA with Honors in Political Science from Williams College.  

Mark Thomas
Dr. Thomas is an adjunct professor of Political Science at LaSalle University where he teaches about international relations, US foreign policy, and political thought and theory. His past research dealt with the foreign policies of the countries of Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia and the other Soviet successor states. As the Global War on Terrorism unfolded, his research interests moved toward the role of the Supreme Court in influencing the course of National Security Law. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, where he also completed an MA in International Relations. He also has an MBA from American Graduate School of International Management. Prior to returning to academia, he worked extensively in the Balkans, Afghanistan and other countries in Europe and Central Asia.