{"id":1917,"date":"2024-04-02T15:05:56","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T15:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/?post_type=showcase&#038;p=1917"},"modified":"2024-05-09T14:41:48","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T14:41:48","slug":"season-5-episode-4-constructed-categories-syriac-christians-and-the-immigration-act-of-1924","status":"publish","type":"showcase","link":"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/showcase\/season-5-episode-4-constructed-categories-syriac-christians-and-the-immigration-act-of-1924\/","title":{"rendered":"Season 5, Episode 4: Constructed Categories: Syriac Christians and the Immigration Act of 1924"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-background has-medium-font-size\" style=\"background-color:#4d4d4e\">One person, missionary EW McDowell, influenced the fate of Syriac Christians ahead of the US Immigration Act of 1924. In this episode, Hannah Roussel interviews James Wolfe about McDowell, whose writings and testimony before Congress opened up the dialectics about the nature of the category \u201cAsiatic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_16-9-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1918\" style=\"width:1000px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_16-9-1024x575.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_16-9-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_16-9-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_16-9-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_16-9-1568x881.jpg 1568w, https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_16-9.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image:&nbsp;Capucin Mission post card of two Syrian Christian women from the rural region of Mardin in southeast Turkey, 1905.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Season 5, Episode 4: Constructed Categories: Syriac Christians and the Immigration Act of 1924\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/6wpE6WI8vX0uYGJ0RpyNxh?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-25\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/reverb-effect\/id1486434428\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-25\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZXZlcmJlZmZlY3QubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M\">Google Podcasts<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-25\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4Otp5KrKnJYZVd1S8guPe6?si=UC24WtvISZaa_B_7JbXrIA\">Spotify<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In May 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act, banning \u201cAsians\u201d from entering the country and setting a national origins quota to limit the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Yet the categories of national and ethnic groups were not so clear-cut. Syriac Christians were one of the groups that did not neatly fit into ideas about race held by many Americans at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode, <strong>Hannah Roussel <\/strong>interviews <strong>James Wolfe<\/strong>, a scholar of late antiquity. Wolfe\u2019s research led him to EW McDowell, a missionary who worked with Syriac Christians and, as a result, became involved in immigration reform in 1924. According to Wolfe, McDowell opened up the dialectics about the nature of the category \u201cAsiatic\u201d through his writings and testimony in front of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/showcase\/season-5-episode-4-transcript\/\" data-type=\"showcase\" data-id=\"1921\">View the full episode transcript<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"historian-biography\">Historian Biography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>James Wolfe <\/strong>graduated in 2020 with a PhD in Greek and Latin from the Department of Classics at The Ohio State University. He is currently the 2023-2024 Manoogian Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan and has held appointments as a lecturer in the Department of Classics at Ohio State and as a postdoctoral research fellow in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University. His research centers on the evolution of the late Roman state in the late antique and early medieval Middle East. In 2023, Wolfe\u2019s article &#8220;Using the Syriac Documentary Parchments, Today and in Antiquity&#8221; was published in the <em>Journal of Near Eastern Studies<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"production-credits\">Production Credits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Episode Producers:&nbsp;<\/strong>Hannah Roussel, James Wolfe, Paige Newhouse<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Host and Season Producer:<\/strong>&nbsp;Paige Newhouse<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Executive Producer:<\/strong>&nbsp;Gregory Parker<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Editorial Board:\u00a0<\/strong>Henry Cowles, Enrieth Martinez Palacios, Talitha Pam, Cheyenne Pettit, Sophie Wunderlich<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Voice Actors:<\/strong> Keanu Heydari, Lucas Koutsoukos-Chalhoub, David Mori, Shane Niesen, Leopoldo Solis Martinez, Sam Winikow<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Interview: <\/strong>James Wolfe (Hannah Roussel, 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Audio:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>newlocknew, \u201cVinyl noise old\u201d (Freesound, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC By 4.0 Deed<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>craigsmith, \u201cS09-12 Gavel tapping &amp; hitting\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/\">CC0 1.0 Deed<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>bewagne, \u201cPaper_Shuffling_Crinkling.\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/\">CC by 3.0 Deed<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>nebulousflynn, \u201cCrowd of extras in a waiting room\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC By 4.0 Deed<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SpiceSound, \u201cWooden chair, push in, pull out\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/\">CC0 1.0 Deed<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Music: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>TheoJT, \u201cMinimalist Piano Strings Improvisation\u201d (Freesound, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC by 4.0 Deed<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Giogrio Di Campo @ Freesound Music, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uFx4gimUHug\">Scott\u2019s Job<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Share your thoughts about&nbsp;<em>Reverb Effect<\/em>&nbsp;by messaging&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:reverb.effect@umich.edu\">reverb.effect@umich.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a9 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One person, missionary EW McDowell, influenced the fate of Syriac Christians ahead of the US Immigration Act of 1924. In this episode, Hannah Roussel interviews James Wolfe about McDowell, whose writings and testimony before Congress opened up the dialectics about the nature of the category \u201cAsiatic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1919,"template":"","format":[51],"categories":[98,44,448],"tags":[],"contributor":[99],"authors":[91,496,260],"department_or_unit":[5],"funding_sources":[66],"project_date":[495],"support_partners":[],"class_list":["post-1917","showcase","type-showcase","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-homepage-showcase","category-reverb-effect","category-season-5","contributor-gregory-parker","authors-hannah-roussel","authors-james-wolfe","authors-paige-newhouse","department_or_unit-history","format-podcast","funding_sources-department-of-history","project_date-495","entry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq.jpg",747,747,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq.jpg",747,747,false],"large":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq.jpg",747,747,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq.jpg",747,747,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq.jpg",747,747,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Syriac_women_from_Mardin_sq.jpg",747,747,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"glparker","author_link":"https:\/\/digitalscholarship.umich.edu\/lsa-history\/author\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"One person, missionary EW McDowell, influenced the fate of Syriac Christians ahead of the US Immigration Act of 1924. 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