Mae Ngai is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She focuses on

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

, ethnicity,

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

, and

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

in 20th-century

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

history.

Early life and education

Ngai is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and describes herself as a student who took a non-traditional route. She took a break from her schooling in 1972 to work as a community activist. After working in the Education and Political Action Department and th
Consortium for Worker Education
as a researcher and professional labor educator in an environment "where being Chinese and being American existed in tension, but not in contradiction," Ngai decided to pursue graduate school focusing on immigration studies. Ngai graduated from

Empire State College Empire State College (SUNY Empire or ESC) is a public university headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Empire State College is a multi-site institution offering associate, ...

with a BA and

with a M.A. in 1993 and Ph.D. in 1998, where she wrote her dissertation under

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstruc ...

Career and research

After graduation, Ngai obtained postdoctoral fellowships from the

Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...

, the

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...

, and, in 2003, the Radcliffe Institute. She taught at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

as an associate professor before returning to Columbia as a full professor in 2006. Ngai is especially interested in problems of nationalism, citizenship, and race as they are produced historically in law and society, in processes of transnational migration, and in the formation of ethno-racial communities. In addition to publishing in numerous academic journals, Ngai has written on immigration and related policy for the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

,'' the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'', and the ''

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

''. Ngai's most notable work was '' Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America,'' which discusses the creation of the legal category of an " illegal alien" in the early 20th century and its social and historical consequences and context.

Courses taught

* Immigrants in American History and Life, Lecture * Colonization/Decolonization, Undergraduate Seminar * Transnational Migration and Citizenship, Graduate & Undergraduate Seminar * Historiography for PhD students

Awards and honors

*Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, 2022 *

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

, 2022 *Shelby Collum Davis for Historical Studies, Princeton University, Spring 2018 *Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North, Library of Congress, Fall 2017 *Huntington Library, Spring 2017 *Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2013 *OAH-AHRAC China Residency Program, 2013 *Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, 2012 *Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, New York Public Library, 2012 *Institute for Advanced Study, 2009 *John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 2009 *Huntington Library, 2006 * Frederick Jackson Turner Award, Organization of American Historians for '' Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America,'' 2005 *Theodore Saloutos Book Award, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, 2004 *Littleton-Griswold Prize, the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

, 2004 *Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard, 2003 *NYU Law School, 2000 *Social Science Research Council, 1999

Selected works

"The Strange Career of the Illegal Alien"
''Law and History Review'', Spring 2003, Vol. 21 No. 1

''The Journal of American History'', June 1999, Vol. 86 No. 1 * * * *Ngai, Mae (2011) "A Slight Knowledge of the Barbarian Language": Chinese Interpreters in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-Century America" * *Ngai, Mae (March 2015). "Chinese Gold Minders and the "Chinese Question" in Nineteenth-Century California and Victoria"

References

Sources

* '' Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America'',

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...

, (2004) * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ngai, Mae 21st-century American historians American writers of Chinese descent Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Historians of the United States Living people University of Chicago faculty Radcliffe fellows Empire State College alumni American women historians 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences