Participant Info

First Name
Jessica Barbata
Last Name
Jackson
Affiliation
Colorado State University
Website URL
https://history.colostate.edu/author/jbjacks/
Keywords
Immigration, Italian/Sicilian Immigrants, US South, Jim Crow South (lynching, miscegenation, disenfranchisement, segregation), New Orleans, Louisiana, Modern Italy, Race, Ethnicity, Citizenship, Social Studies Teaching and Education
Additional Contact Information

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Dr. Jackson specializes in immigration history, late-19th/early 20th centuries U.S. history, southern/Louisiana history, race and citizenship studies, and social studies education. Her first book, Dixie’s Italians: Sicilians, Race, and Citizenship in the Jim Crow Gulf South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020) provides a series of historical case studies that reflect on the lynchings of Sicilians/Italians in Louisiana and Mississippi between 1886-1901, the impact of disenfranchisement efforts upon Sicilians/Italians in 1890s Louisiana, attempts to segregate Sicilian children from a “white” school in 1907 Mississippi, and the inconsistent way that Sicilians and other Italians were racially categorized within turn-of-the-century miscegenation disputes in Louisiana and Alabama. Bridging the previously disconnected fields of immigration history, southern history, and modern Italian history, Dr. Jackson expands scholarship on the immigrant experience in the American South and explorations of the gray area within the traditionally black/white narrative.

With ten years of secondary teaching experience, Dr. Jackson also oversees the history department’s Social Studies Teaching (SST) undergraduate concentration. She regularly teaches EDUC465: Social Studies Methods & Materials and is committed to teacher education, educational equity, and inclusive/culturally responsive pedagogies. She is an affiliate of the Race and Intersectional Studies in Educational Equity (RISE) Center and the Center for Educator Preparation (CEP).

Recent Publications

Dixie’s Italians: Sicilians, Race, and Citizenship in the Jim Crow Gulf South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020).

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States, US South, Italy
Expertise by Geography
Mediterranean, United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Migration & Immigration, Pedagogy, Race