海角论坛

Professor Katherine Benton-Cohen (right) visited Japan last summer as part of an academic residency. Her host at Shuo University, Professor Yuki Oda (center), later visited Benton-Cohen and Ph.D. student Molly Thacker at Georgetown. (Photo courtesy Katherine Benton-Cohen)

December 18, 2018 鈥� Georgetown 海角论坛 history professor has been studying the complex history of the U.S.-Mexico border for years. This past summer, she explored her work alongside students in Japan 鈥� where a land border is itself a foreign concept.

Benton-Cohen spent three weeks in Japan last summer as part of a residency sponsored by the , the , and the .

AN IMMIGRATION HISTORIAN

Through the program, two scholars of American history each year are selected to travel to Japan. This year鈥檚 delegation included Benton-Cohen and 鈥� incidentally, a graduate school classmate of Benton-Cohen at the University of Wisconsin.

An Arizona native, Benton-Cohen has focused her academic career on the American West and the U.S.-Mexico border. After she arrived at Georgetown in 2007, she began focusing more specifically on the history of immigration policy.

Her most recent book, , published by Harvard University Press in May, provides a new perspective on the Dillingham Commission, a panel of experts who produced 41 volumes of reports from 1907 to 1911. Their conclusions have shaped and inspired immigration policies ever since.

鈥淭his project really drew me into thinking of myself as an immigration historian,鈥� Benton-Cohen said.

WATER AND LAND BORDERS

Chuo University hosted Benton-Cohen during her three-week stay in Japan. She gave six talks on the history of immigration to the United States: two conference paper presentations, one graduate student seminar, and three undergraduate classes at Chuo and Doshisha University.

鈥淲e started by looking at the modern state of the U.S.-Mexico border, and unpacked how different the rhetoric around immigration was in the 19th century,鈥� Benton-Cohen said. 鈥淲e had some good discussions about Japan 鈥� being an island nation that is also an empire 鈥� and the difference between water and land borders.鈥�

In addition to the undergraduate lectures, Benton-Cohen presented a paper at the JAAS annual conference in Kitakyushu and participated in a group discussion with graduate students at the .

鈥淭he seminar was a lot of fun, because [Saler] and I got to talk about how we chose our topics, and how academia really works,鈥� Benton-Cohen said.

FACULTY GRANTS

While she had been aware of the OAH/JAAS program for years, the stars had not aligned for Benton-Cohen to make the trip until 2018 鈥� due in large part to the , which help defray travel costs for faculty members on academic trips.

鈥淚 had lobbied for this program for a long time, and then I got to be a recipient of it鈥� Benton-Cohen said. 鈥淚t allowed me to bring my family, and I never would have done it if I couldn鈥檛 bring my family.鈥�

Benton-Cohen also credits her Department of History colleague with exposing her to Asian-American history by inviting her to a 2015 working group funded by the .

鈥淢y specialty was the American West and immigration history, and I had no formal research training in Asian-American history before that,鈥� Benton-Cohen said. 鈥淭he opening chapter of my newest book is about the agreement between the United States and Japan to ban Japanese laborers from the United States,鈥� and on the basis of a draft he read, Sand invited her to join. 鈥淭hat working group was my entr茅e to the field.鈥�

The trip had a meaningful influence on Benton-Cohen鈥檚 teaching.

鈥淚t exposed me to a side of the immigration story that鈥檚 really important, and that I hadn鈥檛 seen before,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think I鈥檒l even see my own teaching in a different way now.鈥�