Displaced, Exiled: Thinking and Making Europe through the Experience of Exile and Displacement (20th–21st century)

At the end of the Second World War, Europe faced the twofold challenge of restoring peace and rebuilding, as well as confronting the displacement and exile of millions of people as a result of the war and the Holocaust. In the ensuing decades, decolonization and the violent conflicts connected to it induced further movements that came on top of and intertwined with previous displacements, including those whom historian Andrea Smith has referred to as “invisible migrants”. Since then, Europe has never ceased to be “on the move”, to use the phrase coined by sociologist Eugen Kulischer, himself a Jewish refugee of Russian origin who arrived in the United States in 1941. This also brings to mind the boat people of the 1970s, those displaced by the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, and more recently Ukrainian refugees. Europe continues to be confronted with population displacements in the twenty-first century, contending with a major challenge over the last decade: in 2015 alone, one million people crossed the Mediterranean on their way to what Aleida Assmann has called the “European dream”.

The conference “Displaced, Exiled: Thinking and making Europe through the experience of exile and displacement”, to be held in Clermont-Ferrand from 25-27 November 2024, will explore the role of displaced and exiled populations in the construction of Europe, whether they came from European countries or other regions of the world. Taking a resolutely multi-disciplinary approach, the conference will especially focus on the period that began with the Spanish Civil War and the outbreak of the Second World War, although it will not exclude looking at earlier periods. The central question will be to examine how these actors conceived of and made Europe — how they contributed to its construction, or on the contrary to its failure. We will explore how these populations experienced European conflicts, violence, and control mechanisms, in other words the resources, uses, representations, and statements that have shaped this Europe on the move.

We notably seek to question not only what Europe is and wants to be, but also its transnational dynamic and ability to respect the norms and values it affirms, human rights in particular, as demonstrated by the recent pantheonization of Missak and Mélinée Manouchian in France. We thereby hope to confront Europe with its history and memory. The conference ties in with research that approaches Europe through the prism of its multiple movements, such as Eugen Kulischer's Europe on the Move, Klaus Bade's Europa in Bewegung, and more recently Aleida Assmann's Der Europäische Traum, in addition to Peter Gatrell's The Great Migration. Special emphasis will be given to three topics: spatial reconfigurations, the experience of regulatory frameworks, and representations of Europe in the face of exile and population displacement.

The conference is part of the commemorations held each year by the University of Clermont Auvergne to honour victims of the raid that occurred in Clermont-Ferrand on 25 November 1943. The topic of this year’s conference is highly symbolic, as it marks the 85th anniversary of the University of Strasbourg’s arrival in Clermont-Ferrand, as well as the 80th anniversary of the return of Strasbourg’s exiles from Clermont-Ferrand to Alsace.

Proposals for papers (maximum 500 words), accompanied by a brief CV (maximum 1 page), should be sent before 15 June 2024 to the following address:
colloque-exiles-deplaces.msh@uca.fr

Participants' travel and accommodation costs will be covered. The working languages of the conference will be French and English.

Scientific Committee:
Laura CALABRESE (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgique), Dorota DAKOWSKA (Science Po, Aix en Provence), Corine DEFRANCE (CNRS, Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne), Karim FERTIKH (Science Po Strasbourg), Oscar FREÁN-HERNANÁNDEZ (Université de Lyon 2), Ségolène PLYER (Université de Strasbourg), Brian SHAEV (Leiden University), Lina VENTURAS (Panteion University, Athènes)