Jian Gao

Jian Gao (pronounced like "John Gal") is a historian specializing in Chinese migration to the Americas during the first half of the twentieth century, with a particular focus on the interplay between transnational networks, migration, identity, and emotions. His works have appeared in The Latin Americanist, Asian Journal of Latin American Studies, The International Report on Drug Studies, and History Compass. His papers have won multiple awards from the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Rocky Mountain Council on Latin American Studies (RMCLAS), Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS), and the World History Association (WHA). Among his notable achievements is his article “Restoring the Chinese Voice during Mexican Sinophobia, 1919-1934,” which received four national and international awards. He is currently working on publishing his monograph, titled Journeys of Longing and Belonging: Migration and the Modern Chinese Mexico (under contract with the University of North Carolina Press, David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History). His dissertation, on which the manuscript is based, won the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, the 2025 WHA Dissertation Award from the World History Association, and Honorable Mention for the Richmond Brown Dissertation Prize from the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association. 

Jian’s second book project, tentatively titled Reform as Restriction: Labor, Nativity, and the Making of Modern Immigration Control, challenges the dominant narrative that the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act marked a decisive break from the exclusionary past of U.S. immigration law. Instead, this study argues that the post-1965 immigration regime replaced overt racial quotas with a new architecture of control—one that continued to restrict access but through subtler, technocratic means. This book traces how the structure of restriction persisted through the introduction of labor certification, per-country numerical caps, and the H-1B visa lottery. These mechanisms redirected and narrowed access through administrative procedures that appeared technocratic and merit-based. Labor certification allowed the state to outsource gatekeeping to employers and economic metrics. Country caps, while framed as equitable, operated as a birthplace-based quota system that preserved geopolitical hierarchies. The H-1B lottery further obscured exclusion by wrapping it in the language of randomness and equal opportunity, despite underlying structural scarcity. By exposing the ways in which post-1965 immigration policy retained and refined exclusionary logics, this project reinterprets the modern U.S. immigration regime not as a story of inclusion, but as one of managed restriction. It examines how law, bureaucracy, and policy language worked together to shift the terms of exclusion without abandoning its function. Ultimately, it asks how national membership continues to be regulated not only by who is allowed in—but how, why, and on what terms. This project has received grants from the Immigration History Research Center Archives at the University of Minnesota and the Global Human Rights Hub at ASU.

Jian is fluent in English, Chinese, Spanish, and French. He has been a holder or recipient of multiple prestigious national fellowships including the Donald D. Harrington Fellowship, the Klarman Fellowship, and the Bill and Rita Clements Fellowship. He is also a Presidential Scholar at ASU.

History matters. It informs civic life, strengthens democratic understanding, and preserves the voices of past generations. Tax-deductible contributions help expand archives, fund research, and support teaching and outreach in the humanities. To advance this mission, please consider a gift through this link: https://www.asufoundation.org/changing-futures/inspire-tomorrows-game-changers/scholarship-fellowship-account-for-history-CA100869.html 

In the News

"Presidential postdoctoral scholar receives 2025 Immigration and Ethnic History Society award for outstanding dissertation," ASU News