New York City is a place for the arrival, settlement, and mingling of people from places around the world where countless New Yorkers remain connected and build new connections over time. We are launching the first academic program that will focus on this global aspect of New York’s diversity and weave it into the fabric of New York’s global university. 

 

The starting point for our New York Diaspora City Project appears in the attached proposal to the FAS Research Investment Fund, which provided the NYU Department of History $40,000 to develop this program of research, teaching, archiving, and public engagement concerning diasporic communities in and around New York City. We seek to generate the basis for external funding that will make this project a major NYU institution, perhaps on the lines of the Tamiment Library.

 

Please come — and bring others who might be interested — to our drop-in brainstorming session on Friday, February 9, 2018, in 53 Washington Square South (King Juan Carlos Center). We will meet in KJCC 717 from 2-4PM and in KJCC 602 from 4-6PM (with wine and cheese).

 

We will keep a rolling account of people and ideas that present themselves as potential contributors. By the end of the day, we will formulate a plan of action for next steps, post them on the board in KJCC 602, and circulate them to everyone involved. Our goal for that day is to form a faculty group fired with ideas that we can put into action, to carry this project forward.

 

We look forward to seeing you.

 

David Ludden and Hasia Diner