Nov. 2, 2007
National Press Club
Washington, D.C.

Source Sheet: Experts on Immigration Issues

The Penn Media Seminar on Immigration is part of an ongoing series which connects news reporters, editors and producers with experts from the University of Pennsylvania faculty. Previous events have included the Penn Conference on Civility in American Politics, held in Washington, and the Penn Media Seminar on Gun Violence, held in Philadelphia. Future Penn Media Seminars in Washington are in the planning stages. Journalists are encouraged to suggest seminar topics to Ron Ozio at ozio@upenn.edu or 215-898-8658.

MEDIA SEMINAR AUDIO FILES

Dr. Rogers Smith is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Alien Rights, Citizen Rights and the Politics of Restriction" in the book "Debating Immigration." 

Dr. Smith studies citizenship, race, ethnicity and gender.  He chairs the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship and Constitutionalism, which brings world scholars to Penn. The theme of the program this year is "Citizenship, Borders and Human Needs."

Media contact: Jacquie Posey, 215-898-6460, jposey@upenn.edu

Dr. Richard Gelles is a sociologist and the dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Gelles is an expert in domestic violence and child welfare. 

He is the co-director for the Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice and Research at Penn and has consulted with many states on their child-welfare systems.

Media contact: Jill DiSanto-Haines, 215-898-4820, jdisanto@upenn.edu

Sarah Paoletti is an expert in immigration, asylum, employment and labor law.  She directs the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Transnational Clinic, where students handle legal issues across cultures, borders, languages and legal systems.  She can also discuss the role of language difficulties and the services to which immigrants are legally entitled as well as guest-worker programs.

Media contact: Jeanne Leong, 215-573-8151, jleong@upenn.edu

Dr. Peter Cappelli is a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Center for Human Resources at Penn’s Wharton School.

Dr. Cappelli is the author of “The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce,” which describes the challenges associated with managing the new, more mobile workforce.

Media contact: Phyllis Stevenson, 215-898-8036, phsteven@wharton.upenn.edu

Dr. Steven C. Larson is associate professor of emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

He has treated migrant farm workers in southern New Jersey, where he has observed first hand a shift in their health-care needs.  Previously, he says, most immigrant patients were young males. Now, whole families need treatment.

Media contact: Marc Kaplan, 215-662-2560, marc.kaplan@uphs.upenn.edu

Dr. Camille Charles is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and faculty associate director of Penn's Center for Africana Studies. 

Dr. Charles studies immigrant residential-neighborhood preferences and racial prejudices.

Media contact: Jacquie Posey, 215-898-6460, jposey@upenn.edu

Dr. Stanton Wortham is the associate dean for academic affairs and a professor in the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. 

Dr. Wortham's expertise includes the new Latino Diaspora, as well as how host communities receive these new immigrants, especially rural and small-town host communities without long histories of foreign newcomers.

Media contact: Jill DiSanto-Haines, 215-898-4820, jdisanto@upenn.edu

Dr. Margaret Dorsey is a visiting scholar in anthropology in the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Dorsey focuses on how attitudes have changed at the U.S.-Mexico border, with hostility and occasional violence replacing the traditional hospitality afforded immigrants.  She also analyzes local media representations of the immigration debate. 

Media contact: Jordan Reese, 215-573-6604, jreese@upenn.edu

Dr. Deirdre Martinez of the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government has worked as an advocate and policy analyst in the nonprofit sector and served as legislative director to U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra of California. 

Dr. Martinez can discuss immigration-policy positions of the leading Hispanic advocacy groups.

Media contact: Jacquie Posey, 215-898-6460, jposey@upenn.edu