Aristide Zolberg

Aristide Zolberg, professor of political science and director of the International Center for Migration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship at the New School for Social Research, will contribute to long-running debates on multiculturalism and the cultural incorporation of immigrants by focusing on the rise of Spanish as an increasingly "recognized" second language in the United States. Immigrants are commonly expected to learn the language of their host country, but Spanish has gained a rare foothold in the United States, benefiting from civil rights legislation, and achieving some recent market appeal. Zolberg will reflect on the history of U.S. monolingualism, the recent backlash against bilingualism, and the different ways Spanish has been institutionalized in New York and California.