From the era of European discovery to the present, America has been imagined as a heavenly destination—as the New Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation. This apocalyptic metaphor, the narratives and images of Revelation have played a significant role in US discourses about national identity and its attitudes toward immigrant groups. Join us as Associate Professor Yii-Jan Lin examines the America-as-New Jerusalem metaphor and its role in anti-Chinese movements and policies.

About the speaker

Associate Professor Yii-Jan Lin

Associate Professor of New Testament, Yale Divinity School

Associate Professor Lin specialises in textual criticism, the Revelation of John, critical race theory, gender and sexuality, and immigration. Her book, The Erotic Life of Manuscripts (Oxford 2016), examines how metaphors of race, family, evolution, and genetic inheritance have shaped the goals and assumptions of New Testament textual criticism from the eighteenth century to the present. Her forthcoming book, Immigration and Apocalypse: The Revelation of John in the History of American Immigration (Yale University Press), focuses on the use of Revelation in political discourse surrounding American immigration—in conceptions of America as the New Jerusalem and of unwanted immigrants as the filthy, idolatrous horde outside the city walls.

About the moderator

Associate Professor Andrew Hui

Associate Professor of Humanities (Literature), Yale-NUS College

Associate Professor Andrew Hui loves to read, think, write, and talk to other humans (and occasionally trees). He studies the classical tradition of early modern Europe and the Global Renaissance. Every day, he tries to live up to Goethe’s maxim that “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” His work has been generously supported by the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, a Berenson fellowship at Harvard’s Villa I Tatti, a National Endowment of Humanities grant for a summer of reading Dante in Florence, a Brian Crawford Award at the Warburg Library in London and a stint at the Centre for the Study of the Book at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

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