KU News Release

History organization honors KU doctoral student’s immigration restriction study

LAWRENCE — Maddalena Marinari, a University of Kansas doctoral student in 20th century U.S. and European history from Montella, Italy, presented her research at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians Immigration and Ethnic History Society, held March 30-April 1 in Minneapolis, Minn.

The organization gave her a John Higham Travel Grant to cover the cost of attending the meeting.

Marinari’s presentation was titled “Toward a New Era: World War II and the Fight Against Immigration Restriction.” Her lecture focused on Italian and Eastern European Jewish mobilizations against the 1924 National Origins Act.

At KU, Marinari has received a Belt Dissertation Research Scholarship, a Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship and an Arthur and Judith McClure Memorial Award for Graduate Research and a Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship. Other awards supporting her research include a Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History research fellowship; a Marcus Rader Center Fellowship; and a Cultural and Heritage Award for Graduate Research from the National Italian American Foundation. In 2005, she was selected as a predoctoral fellow at the 10th Annual Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University.

She plans to complete her dissertation and graduate in 2008. Her dissertation researches the migrations of Italians and East European Jews from 1924 to 1965. Jeffery Moran, KU associate professor of history, is her dissertation adviser.

Marinari has a bachelor’s in English literature and language and French literature and language from the Instituto Universitario Orientale. She is the daughter of Raffaela Dell’Angelo and Fulvio Marinari of Montella, Italy.

Founded in 1907, the Organization of American Historians is the largest professional organization dedicated to the teaching and study of the American past. The organization promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching and presentation of American history and encourages wide discussion of historical questions. Members include professors, students, archivists, museum curators and other public historians.

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