A Brothel, the Census, and the Supreme Court: How Alaska Shaped American Empire

This lecture unearths how the U.S. Supreme Court, in the 1905 case Rasmussen v. United States, used the census to place Alaska on the path to statehood while simultaneously ensuring that path remained unavailable to the Philippines. An unlikely combination of crime, demographic knowledge, racial classification, and judicial improvisation placed Alaska on the path toward statehood while helping define the constitutional boundaries of the expanding American empire. This event is sponsored by the UAF Department of History and the Alaska Historical Society About the Speaker: Michael A. Hill is an Assistant Professor of History and Theology at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas. His research examines how federal authority, empire, and environment have shaped American expansion and governance. His current book, The Imperial Drawbridge: Alaska and Federal Imperial Improvisation, is under contract with the University of Nebraska Press. Hill earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Kansas, and his scholarship has appeared in The Journal of America's Military Past, Western Historical Quarterly, and Diplomatic History. An Army veteran, he previously lived in Fairbanks while stationed at Fort Wainwright.