'Scholars in great need': responses to refugee staff and students at the University of Birmingham 1933-1945 (DOMUS Seminar)

DOMUS Seminar Series 2022 - 2023

Helen Fisher, University Archivist (responsible for University heritage collections), Special Collections, University of Birmingham

This paper looks at the ways in which the University of Birmingham assisted refugee academics and students from Nazi Germany and other countries in mainland Europe between 1933 and 1945.

It draws on the university’s rich but underused archives to explore institutional policy and to assess the influence of individual staff members in driving it, focusing on Birmingham as a case study of a provincial university responding to the growing refugee crisis in the 1930s, in the context of the general response of the higher education sector.

It will explore the institution’s actions in supporting displaced academics before the Second World War and refugee students during the conflict and will comment on the importance of personal connections and the agency of individual university staff in helping refugees. 

This seminar will be via ZOOM and is free to attend. All are welcome.

Please register online to receive the information to attend in person or virtually.