Register: https://campusgroups.uci.edu/SOP/rsvp_boot?id=1932054

Explore advanced writing strategies and dive into the history of under-represented groups with PBK Visiting Scholar, Prof. Natalia Molina! Prof. Molina is a Distinguished Professor and Dean's Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, specializing in History, Latinx Studies, Immigration, Gender, Foodways, and Public Health. Named the 2020 MacArthur Fellow, Prof. Molina’s most recent book, A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community, chronicles the lives of immigrant workers, including Prof. Molina’s grandmother, who became placemakers, nurturing and feeding their communities at restaurants that served as urban anchors.

In this public talk, Prof. Molina hopes to pass on essential professional writing strategies that she and others in her field have used to tell the real-life stories of influential people that are under-represented in history. The professor will be open to questions following the public talk as well as signing copies of her most recent work, A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community.

Event Description:

“When trying to paint a picture of a community, historians rely on documents, using their training to scour official records and the personal papers of people and institutions deemed important enough to have their papers deposited in an archive. How then does one tell the story of a place and a people that have little or no presence in archives-what we might call the "underdocumented”? Where do we find their traces outside official archives? How can we use an archive to tell a story it was not designed to tell? In this talk, Professor Molina shares the strategies that she and other historians have used to tell the stories of the underdocumented.”

Event Schedule:

5:00 - Reception with hors d'oeuvres
5:30 - Talk starts
6:30 - Talk ends, book sale & signing begins (A Place at the Nayarit: How A Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles Nourished its Community)
7:00 - Event ends.