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 people 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. The seminar is meant as a platform to share research findings, ideas, and work in progress.
We invite contributions from recent PhDs, as well as young scholars in the final stages of their dissertations. The applicants’ proposal should indicate at what stage the proposed contribution is and what they hope to gain from participating in the seminar. In addition to historians, we also encourage applications from researchers working in fields such as sociology, political science, anthropology, ethnic and area studies, but expect the application to make explicit reference to historical dimensions. 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.)
Papers will be pre-circulated five weeks before the seminar to allow maximum time for peers and invited senior scholars to engage in discussions on the state of the field. The workshop language will be English. The organizers will cover basic expenses for travel and accommodation. The seminar is hosted by Jan C. Jansen (UT), Dane Kennedy (George Washington University), Kerstin von Lingen (UV) and Sari Nauman (UG). The participants will be joined by a group of leading senior scholars in the field of refugee history, including Delphine Diaz (CY Cergy Paris Université-Institut universitaire de France), Peter Gatrell (University of Manchester) and Susanne Lachenicht (University of Bayreuth).
The seminar is supported by the University of Tübingen, the University of Vienna, the University of Gothenburg, the Pro Futura Scientia Project “Outsiders Within” and the ERC projects “GLORE. Global Resettlement Regimes” and “Atlantic Exiles” For more information on the seminar and its previous cohorts, visit its website at https://rhs.hypotheses.org.
Please submit a brief CV (max. 2 pages) and a proposal of no more than 750 words in English in one PDF by November 15, 2026) to refugee-history@histsem.uni-tuebingen.de. Please contact us under the same email address if you have any questions. Successful applicants will be notified in January 2027.