Who Belongs in America?: Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments The chapters appearing in this volume were first presented at the seventh annual conference on presidential rhetoric held at Texas A&M University’s Presidential Conference Center, March 1–4, 2001. The conference was sponsored by the Program in Presidential Rhetoric, a research unit of the Center for Presidential Studies in the George Bush School of Government. As the director of the 2001 conference, I am grateful for financial and logistical support from several departments and units at Texas A&M University: the Department of Speech Communication, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities, the Race and Ethnic Studies Foundation, and the Office of the Vice President for Research. In addition, the Program in Presidential Rhetoric was also supported by gifts of financial support from Linda and Herman Giesen of Dallas, Texas, and Clementine and Emil Ogden of College Station, Texas. While planning the conference, I was fortunate enough to work alongside remarkable colleagues at Texas A&M University. Members of the Program in Presidential Rhetoric at the time were Martin J. Medhurst, Kurt Ritter, James A. Aune, Leroy Dorsey, Tarla R. Peterson, and Enrique J. Rigsby. Departmental members Richard L. Street, Linda Putnam, Katherine Miller, Barbara Sharf, Charles Conrad, M. Scott Poole, Antonio LaPastina, and Nancy Street also made important contributions before and during the conference. In addition, the conference would not have been possible at all if not for the numerous graduate and undergraduate students who took on key (if sometimes thankless) roles throughout the event. I am also indebted to the scholars who served as chairs and respondents on the conference panels. Obviously, I owe the most to the scholars who wrote these chapters. They started working on the intersection of presidents, rhetoric, and immigration before 9/11, at a time when that triangulation itself may not have seemed all that consequential to some observers. Nevertheless , they asked provocative questions and wrote chapters that still feel eerily prescient to me. They were also patient while their volume editor X | acknowledgments changed jobs and had a baby. More than they could possibly know, I am indebted to them for both their hard work and their patience. During some of the time that I worked on this volume, I was a member of the faculty of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. I would like to thank that university for the institutional and collegial support I received while working on this and other research projects during my tenure there. Rita Kirk and Nancy Kress said an enthusiastic “yes” to all of my requests, from the sublime to the ridiculous. I would also like to thank Boyd “Mack” Mayo, my research assistant at SMU. Mack is wise beyond his years, and he is one of the most conscientious students I have ever known. He is funny, too. While this volume was in the final stages of production, I joined the faculty of the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia. I would like to thank my colleagues there and especially Department Chair Jerold Hale for supporting this project. I am grateful for the professionalism and expediency of the staff of Texas A&M University Press. Two people at the press were especially helpful: editor-in-chief Mary Lenn Dixon and project editor Jennifer Ann Hobson. These two women repeatedly saved me from making mistakes, and they also made sure the volume stayed on track during times when my life was intransition. It was a pleasure to work with them. Because I do not often enough have the opportunity to do so in print, I would also like to thank the members of my family. My husband Trey is both a gentleman and a scholar; even if the latter avocation is only a hobby, he is one of the best historians I know. Our sons Adam and Charlie keep us focused on the many joys of living in the present, and they each teach me something new every day. Dum spiro, spero. Who Belongs in America? ...