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(Re)Making the History of Migration as Public History

This week, having all recently returned from our own winter travels -- travels that were, I hope, both safe and smooth -- we will have to opportunity to talk to other travellers, refugees from the 'long summer of migration' that emerged from the conflagrations in Syria and Afghanistan. Joachim Haberlen, as historian and formerly an assistant professor here at Warwick, will join us with some of his informants to discuss his new book Citizens and Refugees. Not only is it a moving book, but it is the product of history making not just IN public, but WITH two very different publics. In the book, Joachim draws on conversations with both German volunteers who worked together to support refugees who made their way to Germany, and with refugees themselves.

Please prepare for today by reading as much of the book as you can, but especially the Personal Preface, the Introduction and Chapter 1 and ideally, Chapter 4. Think about what these stories add to the history of migration that we have read so far, and what they show us about 'public history' as a resource for and a challenge to scholarly history-making.

Because it may be useful to some of you for essays, dissertations, or your public history projects, you can also access the material we normally cover this week, addressing the 'Windrush Narrative' here; I'll be happy to discuss this with you next week or in office hours.

Required Readings

Häberlen, J.C. (2022). Citizens and Refugees: Stories from Afghanistan and Syria to Germany (1st ed.). Routledge. Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1

https://0-doi-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/10.4324/9781003278115

Strongly Recommended:

Häberlen, J.C. (2022). Citizens and Refugees: Stories from Afghanistan and Syria to Germany (1st ed.). Routledge. Chapter 4 (and the whole book really -- read it over the winter break!!

https://0-doi-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/10.4324/9781003278115

A Tiny Sample of Recent Scholarly Work for Comparison

  • Bailkin, Jordanna. Unsettled : Refugee Camps and the Making of Multicultural Britain, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=5434422.
  • Baylouny, Anne Marie. 2020. When Blame Backfires: Syrian Refugees and Citizen Grievances in Jordan and Lebanon. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. doi:10.1515/9781501751530.
  • Frank Caestecker, and Bob Moore, eds, Refugees from Nazi Germany and the Liberal European States (Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2010). ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=544311.
  • Sergi, D. (2021). Museums, Refugees and Communities (1st ed.). Routledge. https://0-doi-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/10.4324/9780429053474