Author Archive
Brendan P. O'Malley
Brendan P. O’Malley is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Program of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His dissertation, “Managing Migration: Immigration and State Power in the Port of New York, 1847-1890,” under the direction of David Nasaw, examines the New York State Board of the Commissioners of Emigration, the agency that oversaw the reception of all immigrants in the Port of New York from its founding through 1890. Brendan organized a panel that was accepted to the 2012 meeting of the Organization of American Historians entitled “State Power at the Border: Comparative Perspectives on U.S. Immigration Regulation from the Civil War to the Progressive Era.” In June 2012, he will deliver a paper on the exploitation of immigrants in antebellum New York at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Brendan has also given public lectures at the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library. He currently serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in the History Department at Brooklyn College, as well as co-coordinator of the Writing Across the Curriculum Program on campus. Previously, he held the Graduate Center’s Chancellor’s Fellowship from 2006 through 2009, and then served as a Writing Fellow from 2009 to 2011. In 2006, he was awarded an Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Fellowship to provide David Nasaw with research and editorial assistance with a biography of Andrew Carnegie published by Penguin, and also received a research fellowship from the Brooklyn Public Library. Brendan is co-editor of Home Fronts: A Wartime America Reader (New Press, 2008) with Michael S. Foley. At Brooklyn College, he has taught an introductory world history survey, both halves of the U.S. survey, a course on the history of New York City, and an honors seminar on the history of immigration in New York City. In 2008 and 2009, he served as a historical researcher and editorial consultant for Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s memoir, True Compass (Twelve Books, 2009). His research interests include nineteenth-century U.S. history, U.S. immigration history, American political development, urban history, and the history of New York City. Before entering graduate school, Brendan worked as a history acquisitions editor for academic presses, including Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan.
April 29, 2012
Arizona vs. United States Explained
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of the Arizona state immigration law, SB 1070 (meaning Senate Bill 1070). The focus on Wednesday was Section 2(B) of the law, which makes it necessary for law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of each person stopped or arrested if there is […]
March 4, 2012
This Week’s Agenda: Castle Garden and Oscar Handlin
This week, our two class sessions will meet in the Tanger Auditorium on the first floor of the Library (it is behind the reference desk to the right). Tuesday: I will be giving a talk on the subject of my dissertation, the Castle Garden Emigrant Depot and the authority that ran it, the New York […]
February 8, 2012
Feb. 9: Interviewing A Classmate
We will spend most of tomorrow’s class time interviewing a classmate, so remember to: 1) Bring your laptop, phone, or other device that has enough memory to record a substantial amount of audio and has the capacity for easy playback and fast-forwarding, and preferably can be edit audio as well. 2) Make sure you read […]
February 6, 2012
Mexican-American Studies Outlawed in Tucson
Just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of the following debate going on in Arizona regarding the Tucson school system’s Mexican-American Studies curriculum that was recently outlawed. Here’s a New York Times editorial about it from a few weeks back. I just thought that it was incredibly relevant to our readings, especially “The […]
February 2, 2012
Alabama’s Immigration Law and Its Consequences
I just wanted to remind you of the story from This American Life about the unintended consequences of the Alabama state law that cracks down on undocumented/illegal immigrants that I mentioned in our first class. Listen to “Act I: Alien Experiment” at this link here. The piece does a good job of teasing out a […]
February 1, 2012
Joe DeSalvo’s Demographics Presentation
You can download the PowerPoint presentation of Joe Salvo’s “The Demographic Highlights of a Changing New York” from the Macaulay Opening evening event here. I’m sure we’ll find it to be a valuable resource as we move ahead with the final project. Salvo is the Director of the Population Division of the New York City […]
January 30, 2012
Course Basics
Welcome to Macaulay Seminar 2 at Brooklyn College, section TR11H (2618). You download the course syllabus here (and also in the column to the right). You can find most of the course readings at this password-protected page (I will let you know of the password by email). And you can find the discussion forum for […]
