Second Conference
Faculty CONFERENCE convened by Professor Susan PEARSON on “Paper People: Documentation, Identity, and Citizenship in U.S. History”—Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, 2025 in Harris Hall 108 (Leopold Room), 1881 Sheridan Rd., Evanston campus
PROGRAM
FRIDAY, MAY 2
9:30-11:30 Panel 1 (3 papers)
- Sara Egge (Centre College), “Gatekeepers of Citizenship: Clerks of Court and Naturalization Documents”
- Victoria Gonzalez Maltes (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), “`Imposters’: Documentary Control of Foreigners in the United States in the Early 20th Century”
- Rachel Rosenbloom (Northeastern University School of Law), “`So-Called Evidence’: Birth Certificates and Birthright Citizenship, 1900-1950”
11:45- 12:45 Panel 2 (2 papers)
- Miriam Pinski (Shared Use Mobility Center), “Scope Creep in Driver’s License Policy”
- Magdalena Krajewska (Wingate University), “The REAL ID Act at 20 Years”
1-2 Lunch Break
2:00-4:00 Panel 3 (3 papers)
- Anna Pegler-Gordon (Michigan State University), “Resisting Registration, Travel Documentation, and Restrictions on Nikkei Mobility During World War II”
- Vivien Tejada (UCLA), “The Passport Business: Immigration Law and Nation-building in the Confederate Capital”
- Emily Yankowitz (Yale University), “Witnessing Citizenship: New Orleans Seamen Protection Certificate Applications, 1796-1821”
3:45-5:15 Panel 4 (2 papers)
- Levi Vonk (University of Virginia), “Bodies of Work: The Role of the Corpus in Making Migrants’ Race, Gender, and Nationality”
- Andrew Wender Cohen (Syracuse University), “`If you please sir, I want…a certificate that I am a man’: Legitimizing Gender in Nineteenth Century America”
SATURDAY, MAY 3
9:00-11:00 Panel 5 (3 papers)
- Kathleen Belew (Northwestern University), “Sovereign Citizens and State Paper”
- Nick Syrett (University of Kansas), “Proof of Age and the Erosion of Martial Age-of-Consent Laws in the Twentieth Century United States”
- Victoria Cain (Northeastern University), “`To Prevent Outsiders from Horning In’: Control, Commerce and the Student ID”
11:15-12:45 Panel 6 (2 papers)
- Corinne Field (University of Virginia), “`Five Dollars for telling my Age’: Sojourner Truth’s Fantastical Age Claims as a Black Feminist Critique of Identity Documentation”
- Dale Kretz (United Teachers Los Angeles), “Papering Over Emancipation: Freedpeople as Undocumented Citizens”
1-2pm Lunch Break
2:00-3:00 Plenary discussion