Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 16, 2001

Volume 29, Number 22

Forum to explore fate of U.S. 'melting pot'

The ways in which future waves of immigrants will shape U.S. culture will be explored in "Reinventing the Melting Pot," the second of four public forums being held in conjunction with the Tercentennial DeVane Series "Democratic Vistas."

The forum will take place on Friday, March 23, in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. It is free and open to the public.

Roughly one million immigrants, both legal and illegal, enter the United States every year, and some experts project that by the year 2050, nearly one-third of all Americans will be either Asian or Latino. While the United States has long prided itself on being a "melting pot," assimilating its newcomers into a common culture, some experts question whether the nation can, or should, continue to maintain that ideal -- particularly in light of such modern realities as multiculturalism, cheap international air travel, deindustrialization and the rise of the knowledge economy.

"Reinventing the Melting Pot" will feature two panel discussions, one at 1 p.m. and another at 3:45 p.m.

The first, titled "Assimilation: Toward a New Definition," will address these issues in a general, conceptual way. It will be moderated by Tamar Jacoby '76 B.A., senior fellow of The Manhattan Institute, which is cosponsoring the panel. Participants will include David A. Hollinger of the University of California at Berkeley; Michael Lind '85 M.A., of the New America Foundation; Douglass S. Massey of the University of Pennsylvania; Orlando Patterson of Harvard University; and Alejandros Portes of Princeton University.

The second panel, "Immigration and The Urban Experience: New Haven and Elsewhere," will address the concrete implications of assimilation for cities like New Haven, comparing the experience of today's migrants with those, both black and white, who came in an earlier era. It will be moderated by Rogers Smith, the Alfred Cowles Professor of Government at Yale. The panelists will be: Stephan Thernstrom of Harvard University, who will offer an historical perspective; Douglas Rae, the Richard S. Ely Professor of Management at the Yale School of Management and professor in the Department of Political Science, who will discuss how the issues raised in the first panel are playing out in America's cities; and local leaders Patricia McCann Vissepo, executive director of the senior citizens center Casa Otoñal, and Lyndon Pitter, executive director of Highville Mustardseed Community Development Corporation, who will discuss the New Haven experience.

Further information about the forum is available online at www.yale.edu/yale300/ democracy.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Economist will develop better way to measure economic activity in U.S.

Yale SOM to establish database for study of world's financial history

F&ES to create industrial ecology program in Asia

Greene and Brisman awarded DeVane Medals

Professor Lane explains the economics of happiness

Scientist Thomas Steitz honored with Sterling Professorship

Goldman-Rakic is Eugene Higgins Professor of Neurobiology

Joan Steitz cited as outstanding woman scientist

Student actors 'take flight' in comic version of 'The Birds'

Exhibition examines photographers' contrasting images of Saarinen designs

'Faces of Hope' offers portraits of people living with HIV

Model urges students to take pride in their bodies

'Cities and Buildings' pays tribute to urban works . . .

Forum to explore fate of U.S. 'melting pot'

Discovery boosts understanding of hereditary blindness

Grants will support Yale researcher's study on how to quell the 'voices' . . .

Women under 60 more likely to die after heart attack, says study

Renowned nuclear physicist to discuss 'Science, Technology and Politics'

'A Taste of Inequality' explores issues still on feminist frontline

Love songs will be dramatized in workshops

New fund will support activities for teachers of religious studies

New ways of funding environmental enterprises to be examined

Film series focus on the banned and Brazilian

Innovation is focus of this year's Spring Teaching Forum

Annual Pride Week celebration will feature talks, comedy night and film

Campus Notes