Refuge at Risk: Concepts, Infrastructures, Futures
In 1943, Hannah Arendt, who had arrived in New York two years earlier, published “We Refugees” in a small Jewish journal called Menorah. Merging satire, memoir, and manifesto, Arendt’s essay both railed against the term “refugee” and reclaimed it for a renewed politics led by the vanguard of the displaced. Her own emigration was partly enabled by scholar rescue efforts that continue today through the work of organizations such as the Scholars at Risk Network, the Institute for International Education Scholar Rescue Fund, and the New University in Exile Consortium. Eighty years after the publication of “We Refugees,” this UCHRI conference considers the ongoing relevance of Arendt to the heightened stakes of refuge today, gathers together at-risk scholars and their hosts and allies from UC campuses to discuss first principles, and takes stock of humanistic approaches to refuge across the University of California.
February 16-17, 2023
University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI)
University of California, Irvine
Humanities Instructional Building 135