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.
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 [email protected]. Please contact us under the same email address if you have any questions. Successful applicants will be notified in January 2027.
Further details here: https://rhs.hypotheses.org/