Mae Ngai () is an American historian who is the Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Her work focuses on

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

citizenship Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

, and race in 20th-century

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

history.

Early life and education

Ngai was born in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York City, to a

Taiwanese American Taiwanese Americans (traditional Chinese, Chinese: 臺灣裔美國人; pinyin: ''Táiwān yì měiguó rén''; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ''Tâi-Bí-jîn'') are Americans of Taiwanese people, Taiwanese ancestry, including American-born descendants of migrant ...

family. Her family were Taiwanese ''waishengren'' that had fled mainland China for Taiwan during the

Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan Following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War, the remnants of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC), alongside many refugees, retreated to the island of Taiwan (Formosa) beginning on December 7, 1949. The exodus is so ...

in 1949, and her maternal grandfather was a

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

official. Ngai took a break from her schooling in 1972 to work as a community activist. After working in the Education and Political Action Department and the 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 earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(B.A.) from

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

, then a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(1993) and Ph.D. (1998) from

, 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, Reconstr ...

Academic career

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 maintains a headqua ...

, the

New York University School of Law The 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 was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest survivin ...

, and, in 2003, the

Radcliffe Institute The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

. She taught at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, 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'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

,'' the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly 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 ...

'', 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

Source: * 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

Source: *Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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, and other ...

, 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, d ...

, 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 The Frederick Jackson Turner Award is given each year by the Organization of American Historians for an author's first book on American history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopl ...

Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad incl ...

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, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

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

Publications

Articles

*Ron DeSantis 'Banned China From Buying Land in the State of Florida.' How Did We Get Here?" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', December 11, 2023
"The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law"
''The Journal of American History'', June 1999, Vol. 86 No. 1

''Law and History Review'', Spring 2003, Vol. 21 No. 1 * ''Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America'' (Princeton UP, 2004; 2nd ed. 2014
excerpt
* "Birthright citizenship and the alien citizen." ''Fordham Law Review'' (2006): 2521
online
* " 'A Slight Knowledge of the Barbarian Language': Chinese Interpreters in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-Century America." ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 30.2 (2011): 5–32
online
* ''The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America'' Princeton University Press, 2012). * "Chinese gold miners and the “Chinese question” in nineteenth-century California and Victoria." ''Journal of American History'' 101.4 (2015): 1082-1105. * ''The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics'' (WW Norton, 2021
excerpt
* * * *

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 financial ...

, (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 University alumni American women historians 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American writers of Taiwanese descent