[URBANTH-L]CFP: Refugees and the End of Empire

[Angela Jancius]

Call for Papers: Refugees and the End of Empire
Submission Deadline: November 30, 2006

One of the most negative legacies of the twentieth century was the
development of the refugee, a person who emerged during the inter-War 
years, as nationalism, fascism and communism gripped the European 
continent. While scholars have recognized the importance of war and the 
arrival of intolerant regimes in the construction and expulsion of 
refugees, less attention has focused upon the consequences of imperial 
collapse. All of the major Empires (broadly interpreted) which ended 
during the twentieth century, led to successor states which developed 
new forms of exclusivist national ideologies which identified, and often
expelled, sectors of their populations, which did not possess the right 
ethnic credentials. This process first manifested itself with the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire, where successor states in the Balkans 
'exchanged' populations in the era of the First World War, while the 
newly nationalist rump Turkey eliminated its Armenian and Greek 
populations. At the same time, the collapse of the Tsarist Empire also 
led to mass population displacement. At the end of the Second World 
War, the fall of the Nazi Empire in Eastern Europe resulted in the 
expulsion of Germans who had lived in Eastern Europe for centuries, 
while people who found themselves working in Germany either returned 
home or sometimes lived in refugee camps for years. The end of the 
British and French colonial Empires was also accompanied by population 
'exchanges' and expulsions, especially in the case of India/Pakistan 
and Algeria, but also in smaller colonies such as Cyprus. In the case 
of the last of these, refugees emerged over a decade after British 
retreat. Finally, the end of the Soviet Union and the emergence of 
successor states with
nationalist ideologies led to the creation of new outgroups.

The purpose of the conference is to examine the relationship between 
imperial collapse, the emergence of successor nationalism, the 
exclusion of ethnic groups with the wrong credentials, and the refugee 
experience. The conference organizers welcome proposals which look at 
these themes in all of the major cases of twentieth century imperial 
collapse. Themes of particular interest include: the role of empire in 
creating distinct ethnic populations; the emergence of exclusivist 
nationalist ideologies and their views of minorities; the attitude and 
role of successor states in the creation of refugees; and the refugee 
experience.

Proposals

Please send abstracts of around 250 words to Panikos Panayi or Pippa 
Virdee, by 30 November 2006.  

We hope to offer a small number of subsidised places to doctoral
students.

Date and Venue

29-30 June 2007 at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

 

Contact 

Professor Panikos Panayi,
School of English, Performance and Historical Studies, 
De Montfort University, 
The Gateway, 
Leicester LE1 9BH

ppanayi at dmu.ac.uk
01162078681 


Further Details

www.dmu.ac.uk/empire