Hardeep Dhillon (pronouns are she/her/hers) is currently Assistant Professor in Asian American History and core faculty in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Dhillon’s research focuses on the history of immigration to the United States, and the laws and legal practices that shape immigrant lives. Professor Dhillon’s current book project, tentatively titled America’s Modern Immigrant Family, studies the legal construction of the mixed-status family. She is increasingly interested in the history of children's rights, particularly those of birthright children born to non-citizen parents.
In her first year at Penn, Professor Dhillon was awarded The Richard S. Dunn Award for Distinguished Teaching by Standing Faculty at Penn. Prior to arriving at Penn, Professor Dhillon completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the American Bar Foundation. She earned her doctorate at Harvard University in History with a secondary field of study in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. At Harvard, her teaching also earned her the Faculty of the Year Award.
Ph.D., Harvard University, 2021
HIST 3910: Immigration and the Making of US Law
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History, Latin American and Asian American Studies
HIST 1166: A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered
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History, Africana, Asian American, and Latin American Studies
HIST 2159: The History of Family Separation
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GSWS, Africana, and Asian American Studies
HIST 0014: First-Year Seminar: A History of America's Children
Academic Scholarship
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“Imperial Violence, Law, and Compensation in the Age of Empire, 1919-1922,” The Historical Journal, Volume 67, Issue 3, June 2024, pp. 512 – 537.
- “The Making of Modern US Citizenship and Alienage: The History of Asian Immigration, Racial Capital,
and US Law,” Law and History Review, (Feb. 2023), 41, 1–42.- Vicki L. Ruiz Award (2024)
Public Writing
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“The Value of a Colonial Subject’s Life in British India,” Time Magazine, April 2024
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“How the Fight for Birthright Citizenship Shaped the History of Asian American Families,” Smithsonian Magazine, Mar. 2023
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“Whitewashing Caste,” The Caravan, Feb. 2023
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“Indian Immigrants and US Citizenship in an Imperial Context,” World History Common
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“South Asian Communities Have Built Power in the Wake of Violence,” Washington Post
Documentary and Public History
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Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), “In the Margins: How a Supreme Court Case Redefined Whiteness”
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American Muslims, documentary project distributed by PBS Digital Studios, documentary
Professor Dhillon is a member of the Penn Migration Initiative Executive Committee and Affiliate at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration at Penn. Professor Dhillon is also an Affiliate Scholar at the American Bar Foundation and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University.
Professor Dhillon’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Fulbright Program, American Historical Association, American Society of Legal History, and Library of Congress. She serves on the George E. Pozzetta Dissertation Award Committee with the Immigration and Ethnic History Society and the Standing Committee for the Annual Meeting for the American Society of Legal History.