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The University of Southampton
Humanities

'From Jewish 'Illegal' Immigration to Palestine to Lampedusa: migrants, the sea and memory, 1933 to 2015 Seminar

Origin: 
The Parkes Institute
Time:
18:00
Date:
24 November 2015
Venue:
Lecture Theatre C Avenue Campus University of Southampton SO17 1BF

For more information regarding this seminar, please email Parkes Institute at parkes@southampton.ac.uk .

Event details

In the early 1930s the Colonial Office and the British Palestinian offices coined the term 'illegal immigrants' to describe those attempting to reach Palestine from Europe and elsewhere. In the twenty first century a heated debate has taken place in Europe over whether those trying to reach its shores are undesirable migrants or deserving refugees. This seminar paper will explore how these groups represented themselves - then and now - and how they are represented more generally. In particular it will use the case studies of Porto M in Lampedusa and the Clandestine Migration Museum in Haifa to explore issues of power, agency and prejudice in what is now belatedly recognised as one of the greatest issues facing the contemporary world.

Tony Kushner is Professor in the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations and History Department at the University of Southampton. Educated at the University of Sheffield (BA and PhD) and the University of Connecticut (MA), he was formerly historian for the Manchester Jewish Museum. He then moved to Southampton to be director of the Parkes Institute in 1986, developing it to be one of the largest centres for Jewish studies in Europe. He is the author of eight monographs, including The Holocaust and the Liberal Imagination: A Social and Cultural History (Blackwell, 1994); The Holocaust: Critical Historical Responses (with Donald Bloxham, Manchester University Press, 2005); Remembering Refugees: Then and Now (Manchester University Press, 2006 and Anglo-Jewry since 1066: Place, Locality and Memory (Manchester University Press, 2009). His most recent book is The Battle of Britishness: Migrant Journeys since 1685 (Manchester University Press, 2012). He is currently working on a study of the construction of ethnicity in the British armed forces and two books relating to the Holocaust: Journeys from the Abyss: The Holocaust and Forced Migration and, with Dr Aimee Bunting, Co-Presents to the Holocaust. He is co-editor of the journal Patterns of Prejudice and deputy editor of Jewish Culture and History.

Speaker information

Professor Tony Kushner,Professor in the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations and History Department at the University of Southampton.

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