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251 Acknowledgments Many individuals contributed, directly or indirectly, to my completion of this manuscript, and I am extremely grateful for their support and encouragement along the way. Most important, I recognize the superb guidance of my dissertation advisor, Rob Buffington. Rob’s scholarly insights and encouraging feedback and his willingness to comment on countless drafts helped to improve my project immensely. I thank Rob particularly for supporting my project and helping me clarify my thoughts and my writing. I am also grateful for the invaluable input of the other members of my dissertation committee, Susana Peña and Ellen Berry. I thank Susana not only for her insightful comments on various chapter drafts but also for being a passionate teacher and mentor. Her classes prepared me to think about the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. I thank Ellen for her confidence in the final product well before it materialized . Her passion about feminism and theory and her continued support throughout my graduate studies greatly benefited me. I express special thanks to several people whose guidance and support made significant and lasting contributions to my academic success. First and foremost, I thank Eithne Luibhéid, an extraordinary person and a great teacher, whose enthusiasm and knowledge about the U.S. immigration system as a site for constructing and contesting sexuality inspired me to formulate my own dissertation project. I am enormously grateful for the support of the “Sexualities and Borders ” Research Cluster at the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society at Bowling Green State University. I thank Vibha Bhalla, Bill Albertini, Amy Robinson, Joelle Ruby Ryan, Erika Kubik, and Jamie Stuart, who generously volunteered their time to read my work. I also thank the staff at Jerome Library at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. Special thanks to Coleen Parmer, who spent long hours searching for hard-to-find transcripts of 252 · ACKNOWLEDGMENTS congressional debates and other government documents. I express my thanks to the American Culture Studies Program for providing continued financial support and awarding me a dissertation fellowship during my final year of writing. At Indiana University South Bend, I have profited from the friendship and support of many colleagues. Special thanks to the Social Science Writing Group, and especially to Gail McGuire, who read and commented on drafts of various chapters and helped make sure that my dissertation would actually evolve into a book. Thank you also to Cathy Borshuk, David Blouin, Jen Colanese, Allison Foley, and Audrey Ricke. In the course of preparing this study for publication, I was fortunate to receive a faculty research grant at IUSB that enabled me to devote an entire summer to the project. Many thanks to the editorial staff at the University of Minnesota Press for assistance at every stage of the process and to the two reviewers for helping me turn my manuscript into a better book. Finally, I acknowledge the crucial role of my family and friends for never losing faith in the project and supporting me every step of the way. ...

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