Historicizing the Refugee Experience, 17th-21st Centuries: International Seminar, Call for Papers (Essen, Oct 12-15, 2021) 

14. Dezember 2020 / InZentIM

The University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), the German Historical Institute in Washington (GHI) and the National History Center of the American Historical Association (NHC), in cooperation with the Interdisciplinary Center for Integration and Migration Research (InZentIM), the Institute for the Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) and the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21), are pleased to announce the first International Seminar in Historical Refugee Studies, which will be held at the KWI in Essen, October 12–15, 2021. To apply, please visit the submission website under: https://www.gcr21.org/the-centre/news/year/current/call-for-papers-international-seminar-in-historical-refugee-studies.

The purpose of this seminar is to promote the historical study of refugees, who are too often regarded as a phenomenon of recent times. By viewing the problem of refugees from a historical perspective, the seminar seeks to complicate and contextualize our understanding of peoples who have fled political or religious conflicts, persecution, and violence. By bringing together 14 advanced PhD students and early postdocs from different parts of the world whose individual research projects examine refugees in different times and places, we intend to give a sense of purpose to this emerging field of study and demonstrate the value of viewing the plight of refugees from a historical perspective.

We invite contributions from recent PhDs, as well as young scholars in the final stages of their dissertations. Possible contributions include:

• Studies of refugee movements and exile diasporas in various periods and places;
• Studies of the ethnic, gendered, racial, religious, and other characteristics of refugee groups and how they impact on reception policies and processes;
• Studies of reception and aid policies, and on the repercussions of refugees on host states and societies;
• Studies of the changing inter-state framework of refugee movements, such as international or inter-imperial cooperation, the role of international governmental or non-governmental actors, humanitarian organizations, etc.;
• Studies of the infrastructures of exile (camps, networks, economies, regulations);
• Studies of the conceptual history of refugees and exile (legal history, administrative practice, cultural history, etc.).

For more information visit https://www.gcr21.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Historicizing_the_Refugee_Experience_Call_for_Papers-online.pdf