Rachel Buff
- Professor, History
- Professor
Education
- PhD, American Studies, University of Minnesota, 1995
- BA, Brown University, 1985
Courses Taught
- Ethnic 101 - Africans, Europeans and Indian Nations in the Making of American Cultures
- Ethnic 102 - Transnational Migration
- Hist 600/Ethnic 550 - Immigration and U.S. Popular Culture
- Hist 436 - Midwestern Migrations
- History 436: Immigration History
- History 434: The United States as a Global Power
- Hist 419 - Post-1945 U.S.
- Hist 800 - Colloquium on U.S. History - Immigration History
- Hist 900 - Seminar on U.S. History - Rhetorics of Citizenship
- Hist 900 - Seminar on U.S. History - Citizen, Migrant, Nation
Teaching Interests
- Im/migration History
- U.S. Survey, both halves
- Cultures of US Empire
- migration and empire
Research Interests
- Migration & immigrant rights movements
- Transnational cultural politics of the Cold War
- McCarthyism, past and present
- spaces of liberation and solidarity: encampments, sanctuary, caravans
Biographical Sketch
Rachel Ida Buff is a historian of migration and immigrant rights movement. She is particularly interested in international political mobilizations and repression, from the Cold War to the present.
Her most recent book, A is for Asylum Seeker: Words for People on the Move/A de Asilo: Palabras para Persona en Movimiento, is a bilingual, historical glossary of terms. Currently, she is working on various projects, including a collection of essays tentatively entitled, Lost in the Red Scare. Her historically informed, public-facing essays appear in various outlets, including Academe, The Boston Review, Jacobin, Jewschool, Public Scholar, and Truthout.
Rachel is affiliated faculty in African and African Diaspora Studies, Gender and Women's Studies and Jewish Studies. She served as Chair of the History department, (2022-24)
Selected Publications
Buff, Rachel I. Deportation: The Origins of U.S. Policy Ed. Johnson, Benjamin. Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. .
Buff, Rachel I. Review, Kenyon Zimmer, IMMIGRANTS AGAINST THE STATE Canadian Journal of History. .
Buff, Rachel I. “"Repurposing Immigrant Rights Advocacy"” Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Excluson and Resistance Ed. Zimmer, Kenyon, and Salinas, Cristina. College Station, TX: Texas A&M Press. (): 27.
"A Greenhouse of Dirty Knowledge," Provocations, December 2022
A is for Asylum Seeker: Words for People on the Move/A de Asilo: Palabras para Personas en Movimiento, Fordham University Press 2020.
Against the Deportation Terror: Organizing for Immigrant Rights in the Twentieth Century. Fordham University Press, 2017.
Buff, Rachel I. Against the Deportation Terror: Organizing for Immigrant Rights in the Twentieth Century Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. 2017: 282
Buff, Rachel I. “'We're Here Because You Were There': Refugee Rights Advocacy and AntiSemitism” On Anti Semitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice Ed. Jewish Voice for Peace, . Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. (2017): 121-128.
Buff, Rachel I. “Domestic Internationalisms, Imperial Nationalisms: Civil Rights, Immigration and Conjugal Military Policy” Routing Diasporas Ed. McGuinness, Aims, McKay, Steve, and Banerjee, Sukanya. Champagne-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois. (2012).
Buff, Rachel I. “Denizenship as Transnational Practice” Public Culture: Diversity, Democracy and Community in the United States Ed. Schaffer, Marguerite. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. (2008): 263-272.
Buff, Rachel I. “"The Undergraduate Railroad"” Immigrant Rights in the Shadows of Citizenship Ed. Buff, Rachel I. New York: New York University Press. (2008).
Buff, Rachel I. “Harry Truman, Immigration and Ethnicity at an Imperial Moment” Harry's Farewell: Interpreting and Teaching the Truman Presidency Ed. Kirkendall, Richard. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. (2004).