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CSUN Hosts Kelly Sisson in Lecture on Chilean Contract Laborers

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Sept. Oct. 5, 2007) — Historian Kelly Sisson will explore the role of Chilean immigrants in the California Gold Rush during a special presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at Cal State Northridge.

Sisson’s presentation, "Bound for California: Chilean Contract Laborers in the California Gold Rush, 1848-1853," is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Whitsett Room, Sierra Hall 451.

In her lecture, Sisson, this year’s W.P. Whitsett Fellow, will explore how Chileans "mapped" the physical and social spaces they expected to find in California, the kinds of labor Chileans expected to implement in the gold fields and how they responded to conditions in California.

"We would like for students to get introduced to a young scholar who is doing very significant multi-archival research in Chile and the U.S. on a historical topic of enduring interest to Californians, the California Gold Rush," said Thomas Maddux, chair of CSUN’s Department of History.

Sisson’s research began as an undergraduate at Stanford University, where her honors thesis on Chileans in the California Gold Rush received the John and Marjorie Hines Prize in American History and the Robert M. Golden Award for Excellence in the Humanities. She continued her research in Chile’s national archives in the winter of 2007.

The Whitsett Lecture Series is part of a foundation created and endowed by the Whitsett Family in 1986.The gift allowed for the creation of the first endowed chair at CSUN as well as the first endowed chair in history at any California State University. As a Whitsett Research Fellow, CSUN has provided Sisson with funding to conduct further research in Chile.

A reception will be held following the lecture.

While the lecture is free and open to the public, reservations are required due to limited seating. For reservations contact the Department of History at (818) 677-3566.