Sherman Lecture to Explore Roots of Modern Nativism, Immigrants’ Rights

Eladio Bobadilla, assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, will deliver the 2023 Sherman Emerging Scholar Lecture, “’Building Walls, Building Bridges: The Roots of Modern Nativism and the Struggle for Immigrants' Rights,” at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 18. This free event, part of the Sherman Emerging Scholar Lecture Series, is presented by the UNCW Department of History and is open to the public.  

“We are delighted to host Dr. Bobadilla as our Sherman Emerging Scholar this October,” said W. Taylor Fain, UNCW history department chair. “His careful examination of the past illuminates and contextualizes issues that are of the utmost importance to our country today.”  

Bobadilla’s research explores labor and working-class history and politics; the history of race and ethnicity; U.S. Latinx history and politics; immigration history; and nativism and xenophobia. He teaches courses on the history of Latinos in the U.S., U.S. immigration history, and the history of U.S. social movements.  

Among other themes, Bobadilla’s lecture will examine nativism and its relationship with the immigrants’ rights movement. He will focus on the 1980s and 1990s, a period critical to modern immigration history, and explain how this time shaped current immigration policy. 

Now in its 22nd year, the Sherman Emerging Scholar Lecture Series was endowed by Phillip Sherman and Ann Sherman-Skiba and their spouses in honor of their parents, Virginia and Derrick Sherman. The series provides an opportunity for promising scholars near the beginning of their careers to share their research with UNCW students, faculty and the Wilmington community. 

In addition to the lecture, the Sherman Emerging Scholar Roundtable will follow on Oct. 19 at 3:30 p.m. in the James Hall auditorium. The panel discussion is open to the public, and all UNCW students and faculty are welcome to attend. Roundtable participants joining Bobadilla will include: Lori Flores, Stony Brook University; Brian Behnken, Iowa State University; and Benny Andres, UNC Charlotte.