Guest Editors’ Introduction

Victoria Hattam and Riva Kastoryano Guest Editors’ Introduction ON N O V EM B ER 7-8, 2008, W E O R G A N IZED A C O N FER EN C E AT TH E New School for Social Research to honor Aristide Zolberg by m aking visible his trem endous influence as a scholar, public intellectual, m entor, and friend. The conference, as w ith Zolberg’s distinguished career, was w ide ranging, yet unified by th e th em e o f negotiat­ ing political difference in a w orld organized by states. Questions of state building, ethnic conflict, m igration and integration, com para­ tive politics and society, and transnational politics have been central to Zolberg’s work, executed across at least three continents: Africa, Europe, and the United States. A lthough the intellectual range of the conference was itself a signature of Zolberg’s life and work, w hen putting together the Social Research volume, we opted for a narrow er fram e by zoom ing in on the politics of m igration in Europe and the U nited States. We selected several papers from the conference and invited additional scholars to subm it articles in order to round out th e volum e. The result is an excellent array of papers bridging issues of m igration in Europe (Kastoiyano, Body-Gendrot, Schain, Faist, Torpey, Zapata-Barrero, and Ingram-Triadafilos) and the United States (Prewitt, Smith, Son-Thierry and Weil, Waters-Kasinitz, Hattam-Yescas, Alba, Délano). We are fortu­ nate to be able to include a fascinating roundtable discussion in w hich a distinguished group of colleagues reflect m ore directly on Zolberg’s life and w ork (Snitow, Apter, Jung, Katznelson). The roundtable makes Guest Editors' Introduction xi clear the intricate links betw een scholarship on African decoloniza­ tion and the civil rights m ovem ent in the United States—seeing the connection brings to life the intersections betw een the academy and the w orld th at all too often fade from view. This interconnection is rarely discussed in political science departm ents today; understand­ ing the connection allows us to reintegrate politics and the academy in a way th at is exem plary of Zolberg’s life and research. It will also be of considerable interest to political scientists w ho often labor w ithin the confines o f academic subfields, oblivious to the deeper political and intellectual connections betw een them . We are also delighted to give Zolberg, colleague and friend, the last word, in w hich he reflects on the broad them es of his life’s research. We w ould like to th an k Ronald Kassimir, w ho helped us orga­ nize the conference, but w ith the num erous dem ands in his job as associate provost at the New School was unable to coedit the volume. Finally, we are indebted to Arien Mack and Cara Schlesinger for allow­ ing us to honor Aristide Zolberg in Social Research. xii social research ...