How do you get students to engage with archival documents, connect to local immigration experiences to transnational movements, and research topics of immigration that mean the most to them? Now in its fifth version of the course, "Immigration in the Americas," is a unique sophomore and junior-level history seminar that grapples with the intersection of these goals. This talk will explore the process of adapting the course to explore new avenues of inquiry.

Molly C. Ball teaches in the University of Rochester’s Department of History and is coordinator for the Latin American Studies minor where she teaches courses in Latin American history, comparative immigration, and public history. Many of the courses that she teaches incorporate community-engaged instruction. She holds a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and B.A.s in history and Spanish from Clemson University. Her first monograph, Navigating Life and Work in Old Republic São Paulo (UFP, 2020) explores how residents in São Paulo adapted to the challenges of WWI and labor discrimination. Molly has also published in the Journal of Women’s History and the Review in Economic History. In addition to her current research that embraces a feminist economic history approach to the twentieth century, she is finishing a sophomore-level textbook, Daily Life, Debt, and Development: An Introduction to Latin American Economic History, the majority of which will be available open access.