Patrick Scallen
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Patrick Scallen is a historian of the Salvadoran immigrant population in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. He is also an Adjunct Professor of American University and the Lead Researcher in Education and Outreach Program, Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Drawing heavily upon oral and written sources, he situates Salvadoran narratives in the context of national debates on immigration reform, US Cold War foreign policy in Central America, domestic social movements, and the racial milieu of late-twentieth-century Washington, DC. Patrick’s oral histories are supported by Humanities DC and the DC Oral History Collaborative and have been digitally archived at the DC Public Library. He recently completed a two-year tenure as an archivist for the Smithsonian Latino Center’s Latino DC History Project and currently consults for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. A lifelong educator and District resident since 2004, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in migration studies, Latin American history, and U.S. Latinx history at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Catholic University.