Jean Pfaelzer is an internationally recognized scholar and commentator addressing pressing issues of immigration, labor and women.
Bringing history to life
Jean Pfaelzer has spent her career dedicated to shining light on the incredible stories of migration, resistance, oppression, and survival that have shaped the American past.
In addition to her archival exploration and scholarship, Jean is dedicated to sharing long buried stories in American history with local, national, and international audiences. She has consulted and appeared in PBS/CPBS specials on Chinese migration and was featured in the CSPAN special on African American slavery in California. She was also on the curatorial team for the first pan-Asian exhibit by the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and she has curated exhibits for local historical societies and for the National Women’s History Museum. She writes for Huffington Post, History News Network, and The Globalist.
Currently, she works with the Eureka Chinatown Project in Eureka, CA, to tell the history of the Chinese who were purged from the fishing town. The Eureka Chinatown Project has commissioned a mural, re-named a street that once ran through Chinatown, and is now breaking ground on a monument to commemorate the purge and mark the return of the Asian American community. Jean is also a member of the “1882 Project on Rural Chinatowns,” consulting with other towns on way to honor Chinese American history.
Praise for CALIFORNIA: A SLAVE STATE
“Learned, authoritative, outraged but clear-headed and contained, convinced that history must tell the full story, however painful.”
— Kevin Starr, author of Americans and the California Dream
Scholar + Speaker
Jean received her Ph.D. from University College London/Cambridge University. Her MA and BA with honors in English are from University of California, Berkeley. Before her appointment at the University of Delaware, she taught at the University of California, San Diego, where she was President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Union.
In addition to her teaching and scholarship, she is a sought-after guest lecturer around the world. She has spoken at Smithsonian Museums, the Library of Congress, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and was guest professor or visiting lecturer at the Universities of Exeter, Regensburg, Graz, Sevilla, Granada, Malaga, Utrecht, Mainz, Nottingham, Barcelona, Radboud, Mainz, Coimbra, Seville, Leiden, and at Xi’an International Studies University in the People’s Republic of China.
An activist and a feminist, Jean participated in the Civil Rights Movement and Voter Rights movement and is active in current anti-racist and reproductive rights initiatives. She has worked for the United Farmworkers of America and launched a weekly radio show at KPFA/Pacifica on labor news. Recently, she provided testimony from California, A Slave State to the Congressional Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the US. On August 10, 2023, she also testified in front of the San Francisco Human Right Commission’s Reparations Committee.
She first moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as Executive Director of the National Labor Law Center (National Lawyers’ Guild), and was a Senior Legislative Analyst focusing on immigration, labor, and women while working for a Democratic Member of the House of Representatives. She was appointed by the Mayor of Washington DC to the DC Commission on Women. In addition, she chaired the American Studies Association Taskforce on International Women and has served on the ASA Women’s Committee and International Committee. She is also a Fulbright Senior Scholar.
Today, Jean can be found at her home in Washington, D.C., her fellowship office at the Library of Congress, or at her cabin in Humboldt County, California, where she hikes the redwoods and kayaks with her husband and family. She has played the flute since high school and loves to bake. She makes the ultimate baklava for Orthodox Easter and pavlova and macaroons for Passover.