Jeffrey Lesser is Professor of History and was awarded the Winship Distinguished Research Professorship in 2005. His research interests include modern Latin American history, focusing on ethnicity, immigration and national identity, especially in Brazil, and transnational and national identity and Diasporic communities. His publications include: A Discontented Diaspora: Japanese-Brazilians and the Meanings of Ethnic Militancy, 1960-1980 (Duke University Press, 2007), Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil (Duke University Press, 1999) and Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question (University of California Press,1994). He is the co-editor of Latin American Jews or Jewish-Latin Americans? (with Raanan Rein) (forthcoming University of New Mexico Press, 2008); Searching for Home Abroad (Duke University Press, 2003) and Arab and Jewish Immigrants in Latin America: Images and Realities (with Ignacio Klich) (Frank Cass,1998). He spent the 2007-2008 year as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair of the Humanities at Tel Aviv University and is the winner of the 2005 ICIS Faculty Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Comparative and International Studies. |
