The History Project invites the public to attend a panel and discussion on the history of LGBTQ migration in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Panelists include Eithne Luibheid, Ph.D. (Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Director of Graduate Studies, University of Arizona), Karma R. Chavez, Ph.D. (Associate Professor and Department Chair, Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, University of Texas at Austin), Richard Iandoli, Esq. (Iandoli, Desai & Cronin P.C.), and Al Green (Ministry Director, LGBT Asylum Task Force). Panelists will contextualize the long history of LGBTQ migration, immigration, and asylum from academic, legal, and community standpoints, with a particular focus on the histories of LGBTQ migrants to Massachusetts.

RSVP on Eventbrite, link to the Zoom will be sent out the day of the event. Email info@historyproject.org with any questions. For security purposes, Zoom meetings require an authenticated Zoom account, so please be sure to register with Zoom prior to the event.

This event is free and open to the public, any donations made will be split between The History Project and the LGBT Asylum Task Force. Thank you for your support!

About the Speakers

Eithne Luibhéid is Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona (UA) and the former Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies at UA. She is the author of Pregnant on Arrival: Making the ‘Illegal’ Immigrant (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) and Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border (University of Minnesota Press 2002); the co-editor with Karma Chávez of Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention and Deportation (University of Illinois Press 2020) and two other volumes; and the editor of a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies on “Lives that Resist Telling: Migrant and Refugee Lesbians” (2020) and a special issue of GLQ on “Queer Migrations” (2008).

Karma R. Chávez is a rhetorical critic who utilizes textual and field-based methods and studies the rhetorical practices of people marginalized within existing power structures. She has published numerous scholarly articles and books, including Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities, as well as co-founding the Queer Migration Research Network. She works with social justice organizations and her scholarship is informed by queer of color theory, women of color feminism, poststructuralism, and cultural studies.

Chávez is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She previously worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Department of Communication Arts. For four years in Madison, she hosted a radio show on 89.9 FM WORT called "A Public Affair."

Attorney Richard Iandoli has practiced U.S. immigration law since 1977. Among his many accomplishments, he has served as Past Chair of the New England Chapter, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), a member of AILA Executive Committee from 1992- 1997, and he is a past member of AILA National Board of Governors. Richard is a frequent lecturer on U.S. immigration matters, and has led presentations for the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (nationally and locally), Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE), Northeastern University, Boston University, Boston College and Harvard University Schools of Law, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA). Throughout his career, Richard has served as a mentor for other attorneys through AILA and the Political Asylum Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project. He is also the author of numerous articles on U.S. immigration matters for AILA, MCLE and others.

Richard’s current bar admissions include the Massachusetts Bar, the Federal District Court of Massachusetts and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. He holds a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts (1969) and a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts (1976).

Al Green is the Ministry Director of the LGBT Asylum Task Force. As a gay asylum seeker from Jamaica and a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA), he has a unique perspective on the differences and similarities between the LGBTQ communities in both countries. He is also an avid swimmer and a lover of all things food.