Kevin Kenny
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kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny
@kevinkenny.bsky.social
7.9K followers 4.8K following 480 posts

Historian of US immigration | 19th-century | race | labor | slavery | global migration | diaspora

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Political science 28%
Sociology 16%
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kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · Sep 25
Video of our launch of Rituals of Migration @gihnyu.bsky.social @nyupress.bsky.social is now up on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qh1...
@irpinaingiro.bsky.social @hidehirota.bsky.social @grainnemcevoy.bsky.social @ciantmcmahon.bsky.social @josephsciorra.bsky.social @appalachianphilly.bsky.social
Launch of Rituals of Migration: Italians and Irish on the Move
YouTube video by Glucksman Ireland House NYU
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

iehs.bsky.social
Immigration and Ethnic History Society @iehs.bsky.social · 3d
***We're on YouTube!***

Please visit the IEHS YouTube channel to watch clips from our past virtual events, including book talks, panel discussions, and more. These clips are great teaching tools!

m.youtube.com/%40iehs_org?...
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
m.youtube.com

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
Thank you

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

stephenwest.bsky.social
Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 4d
this season is wearing on the old guy
a 7-8 foot skeleton in the front yard of a house, wearing a Santa costume

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
🗃️ Let’s not turn back the clock! See The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic
global.oup.com/academic/pro... Greatly looking forward to reading @gauthamrao.bsky.social's White Power: Policing American Slavery @uncpress.bsky.social 🧵 7/7
global.oup.com

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
🗃️ As a sovereign state, Scalia claimed, Arizona in 2012 had “the inherent power to exclude persons from its territory,” subject only to limitations set by the Constitution or constitutionally imposed by Congress. If Arizona could not secure its territory, it would no longer be sovereign. 🧵 6/7

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
🗃️ These laws, Scalia continued, “not only provided for the removal of unwanted immigrants but also imposed penalties on unlawfully present aliens and those who aided their immigration.” 🧵 5/7

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
🗃️ ... of certain classes of aliens, including convicted criminals, indigents, persons with contagious diseases, and (in Southern States) freed blacks.” 🧵 4/7

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
🗃️ “Notwithstanding ‘[t]he myth of an era of unrestricted immigration’ in the first 100 years of the Republic,” Scalia noted with evident approval, “the States enacted numerous laws restricting the immigration ... 🧵 3/7

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
🗃️ Justice Antonin Scalia, for one, wanted to revive the tradition, commenting approvingly on Arizona’s 2010 Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB 1070) in his dissenting opinion in Arizona v. U.S. (2012). 🧵 2/7

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Sven T. Beckert

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 4d
🗃️ Thank you, @gauthamrao.bsky.social for mentioning "The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic" @academic.oup.com. Local police power in the antebellum era was pervasive and ferocious @uncpress.bsky.social @adamserwer.bsky.social @hidehirota.bsky.social @unlawfulentries.bsky.social 🧵 1/7
Abstract cover, showing US states in a grid of power and the title of the book, The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic: Policing Mobility in the 19th-Century United States

Reposted by Kevin Kenny, Constance Bantman

juliarosekraut.bsky.social
Julia Rose Kraut @juliarosekraut.bsky.social · 5d
OTD - On December 21, 1919, anarchists Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman were ideologically deported from the United States. They were sent to Soviet Russia with 247 others on the S.S. Buford, also referred to as the "Red Ark." 🗃️
Seated - Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Berkman is holding a crutch and has his legs elevated on a chair.

Reposted by Kevin Kenny, P. L. Thomas, Karin Wulf

americanstudier.bsky.social
Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 5d
Here it is, the final regular #ScholarSunday thread of 2025, my 255th thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
#ScholarSunday Thread 255 (12/21/25) – Black and White and Read All Over
Here it is, the final regular #ScholarSunday thread of 2025, my 255th thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please sha...
blackwhiteandread.com

Reposted by Kevin Kenny, Kathleen Kennedy, Annette Yoshiko Reed

vreinburg.bsky.social
Virginia Reinburg @vreinburg.bsky.social · 6d
Our tribute to Natalie Zemon Davis, in the Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte. Please share widely!

www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/...
Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History Volume 116 Issue 1
Volume 116, issue 1 of the journal Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History was published in 2025.
www.degruyterbrill.com

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

juliarosekraut.bsky.social
Julia Rose Kraut @juliarosekraut.bsky.social · 6d
December - Washington Square Park #FridayPhoto 📷📸🗃️
Washington Square Arch with Christmas tree - evening.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Philip N. Cohen, Robert C. Richards , and 10 more

earlymodjustice.bsky.social
Holly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · 7d
My forthcoming book—
For which I began research in 2006.
Is now posted on the website for Princeton University Press.

Cover will be added soon.

The King’s Slaves: The British Empire & the Origins of American Slavery
The King's Slaves
A provocative account of how empire and absolutism institutionalized slavery in America
press.princeton.edu

Reposted by Kevin Kenny, Nathan P. Kalmoe

hidehirota.bsky.social
Hidetaka Hirota @hidehirota.bsky.social · 12d
I moderated a discussion of the Page Act of 1875 with Catherine Ceniza Choy, Cybelle Fox, and Leti Volpp in April. You can now watch a video of the event!

news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/12/b...
Berkeley Talks: The Page Act and the making of racialized US immigration control - Berkeley News
A panel of UC Berkeley scholars unpack how the 1875 law helped institutionalize racially targeted exclusion at the border and laid the groundwork for the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and later U.S. immi...
news.berkeley.edu

Reposted by Mary Burke

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 17d
Coming soon (June 2026) as the next book in the Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series @nyupress.bsky.social @gihnyu.bsky.social A powerful reinterpretation of global Irish nationalism by @patrickjmahone1.bsky.social nyupress.org/search-resul...

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

patrickjmahone1.bsky.social
Pádraig Fhia Ó Mathúna @patrickjmahone1.bsky.social · 18d
Delighted to be part of the Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series and a real privilege to work with series editor
@kevinkenny.bsky.social. 📚✍🏼

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

iehs.bsky.social
Immigration and Ethnic History Society @iehs.bsky.social · 18d
***Nikki Keddie Book Award Winner***

Congratulations to IEHS Executive Board member @sfahrenthold.bsky.social for receiving the Nikki Beddie Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association for her Unmentionables. Textiles, Garment Work, and the Syrian American Working Class!

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

stephenwest.bsky.social
Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 18d
blotto before the 4 o'clock game
Photograph of an inflatable Santa, face down on a lawn

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 19d
@nytopinion.nytimes.com @iehs.bsky.social
kevinkenny.bsky.social Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 20d
Powerful NYT op-ed by @amandafrost.bsky.social
"Sixty years ago, the US abolished immigration restrictions based on nationality alone. ...we should never go back to a system that made collective judgments about the worthiness of specific nationalities to immigrate..." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/o...
Opinion | We Rejected This Practice 60 Years Ago. We Must Do So Again Today.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Manisha Sinha, Nathan P. Kalmoe

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 20d
Powerful NYT op-ed by @amandafrost.bsky.social
"Sixty years ago, the US abolished immigration restrictions based on nationality alone. ...we should never go back to a system that made collective judgments about the worthiness of specific nationalities to immigrate..." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/o...
Opinion | We Rejected This Practice 60 Years Ago. We Must Do So Again Today.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

stephenwest.bsky.social
Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 20d
Left, from morning dog walk: Santa sleeping one off

Right: Santa revived, with new mode of transport
Photograph of a lawn, dusted with snow. An inflatable Santa rests on the ground Photo from later in the day. Santa is upright, and has an inflatable dinosaur assistant beside him

Reposted by Sven T. Beckert

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 22d
See Irvin Ibarguen's important book "Caught in the Current: Mexico's Struggle to Regulate Emigration, 1940-1980," just published @uncpress.bsky.social uncpress.org/978146968958...

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Sven T. Beckert

kevinkenny.bsky.social
Kevin Kenny @kevinkenny.bsky.social · 22d
NYU historian Irvin Ibargüen: "Mexican immigration flourished with the encouragement—indeed, the insistence—of the United States. To pretend otherwise is to feign shock at a harvest it intentionally planted and from which it has continually reaped rewards." time.com/7334455/immi...
Immigrant Workers Didn't Invade the U.S. They Were Recruited
As aggressively as the U.S. pursues immigrant enforcement, it has also invited and recruited immigrant workers.
time.com

Reposted by Michael E. Mann, Anna O. Law, Joseph Schafer , and 2 more

nytpitchbot.bsky.social
NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 24d
Trump's MRI raises new questions about Biden's health.

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

iehs.bsky.social
Immigration and Ethnic History Society @iehs.bsky.social · Nov 21
New publication by IEHS member Samuel J. Klee:

“Drawing Barbed Wire: The Tule Lake Scrapbook of 1942,” Environmental History 30, no. 4 (October, 2025): 729-745.

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Drawing Barbed Wire: The Tule Lake Scrapbook of 1942 | Environmental History: Vol 30, No 4
Abstract In December 1942, teachers and Japanese Americans at the Tule Lake Relocation Center created a scrapbook for Elmer Shirrell, the camp’s outgoing director. The scrapbook reveals Tule Lake teac...
www.journals.uchicago.edu

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Joe R. Feagin, Kevin Kenny , and 3 more

gauthamrao.bsky.social
Gautham Rao @gauthamrao.bsky.social · Nov 20
The publication date for my book on the history of policing American slavery has been moved up a month! Now available May 12, 2026! Thanks so much to those who have preordered! The Press is offering 30% off with the code, 01UNCP30

uncpress.org/978146969484...
White Power
Beginning in the colonial era and growing through the American Revolution and the Southern plantation system, slaveholders’ violent police regime continued...
uncpress.org

Reposted by Kevin Kenny

iehs.bsky.social
Immigration and Ethnic History Society @iehs.bsky.social · Nov 20
***New article by IEHS member @kangborderlaw.bsky.social ***

“Creating a ‘Mass Production Technique’: Anti-Mexican Racism and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952,” Journal of American Constitutional History 3, no. 3 (2025): 545-613.

jach.law.wisc.edu/anti-mexican...
Creating a “Mass Production Technique”: Anti-Mexican Racism and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952
by S. Deborah Kang New archival research shines a light on the anti-Mexican animus that motivated the authors and agents of the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 and reveals that racism was a feature, rathe...
jach.law.wisc.edu