As a prolific connector of musical conversations between nations and cultures, Scripps Professor of Music Hao Huang has been a lifelong ambassador for messages of hope and inclusion across borders. So, when President Lara Tiedens asked Huang to spearhead this year’s Humanities Institute program on the topic of immigration, Huang was delighted to oblige.
“As a child of immigrants, and one who has represented this country for decades in myriad academic and art performance roles, I feel I have a personal stake in defining ‘who makes America great,'” Huang asserts.
As director of the Humanities Institute for the 2017–18 academic year, Huang has organized a series of public lectures and conversations as well as student-only workshops titled The World at Our Doorsteps: Immigration and Deportation in Los Angeles.
Over the next two months, these programs will take an unflinching look at immigration issues in the region, inviting an impressive roster of leading scholars, authors, and activists to campus for important conversations about the current climate of racial and cultural exclusion. According to Huang, the series will cover such topics as the influence of immigrants on Los Angeles’ social fabric, ICE deportation raids and threats of mass detainment and deportation, the effect of immigration policies on Muslim and Latinx communities, and more.
“Scripps’ Humanities Institute events provide an important and current forum for members of the community—students and neighbors alike—to explore the timely issues of today’s anti-immigrant climate,” says Huang, who serves as the Bessie and Cecil Frankel Endowed Chair in Music.
“We invite the public to participate and to think deeply with us about these relevant issues.”
Humanities Institute events are held on the Scripps College campus and are free and open to the public. For more information as well as a complete program schedule, click here.
For more information about public events at Scripps College, click here.