The Eisenberg Institute will kick off its 2024-25 program with a new theme, “Home and Exile,” and a talk on September 12, 2024, by historian Angela D. Dillard (University of Michigan).
“Issues surrounding home and exile loom large at the current moment, whether we are considering the displacements and migrations of people or non-human organisms in the face of political upheavals, economic inequalities, interpersonal conflicts, or climate transformations,” said John Carson, director of the Eisenberg Institute.
“While often thought of as opposites, in this series of programs we want to explore not just the tensions but also the intimate connections between home and exile, and the ways in which each can signal either promise or peril,” said Carson. “We invite the entire Eisenberg community to join the conversation.”
Click the dates below to link to the event calendar entry to learn more about each event. Additional information—including titles, panelists, and abstracts—will be posted when available. See below for the full "Home and Exile" theme statement.
Please contact eisenberginstitute@umich.edu to subscribe to the institute's e-newsletter and receive the latest program information.
Fall 2024 Events
September 12 • 4 pm • Lecture
Angela D. Dillard (University of Michigan)
September 13 • 12 pm • Symposium
September 26 • 4 pm • Lecture
Melanie S. Tanielian (University of Michigan)
September 27 • 12 pm • Symposium
October 10 • 4 pm • Lecture
Bathsheba Demuth (Brown University)
October 11 • 12 pm • Graduate Student Workshop
November 15 • 9 am • Symposium
The Modernist Wish: Europe in the Twentieth Century
Anne Berg, Ismael Biyashev, Monica Black, Kathleen Canning, Deborah Field, Lucy Hartley, Tracie M. Matysik, Roberta Pergher, Lewis Siegelbaum, Scott Spector
Winter 2025 Events
January 16 • 4 pm • Lecture
Larisa L. Veloz (University of Texas El Paso)
January 17 • 12 pm • Graduate Student Workshop
January 30 • 4 pm • Lecture
David Bresnahan (University of Utah)
January 31 • 12 pm • Graduate Student Workshop
February 27 • 4 pm • Lecture
Nandini Pandey (Johns Hopkins University)
February 28 • 12 pm • Graduate Student Workshop
March 20 • 4 pm • Lecture
Pär Cassel (University of Michigan)
April 3 • 4 pm • Lecture
Serhii Plokhii (Harvard University)
April 4 • 12 pm • Graduate Student Workshop
"Home and Exile" Theme Description
Home conjures places of refuge or belonging, habitats that sustain and nurture. Exile, by contrast evokes images of loss or separation, a place of alienation where survival is a struggle. And yet, home can also be a site of danger and exile a sign of defiance or a place of freedom. Home and exile are key to the concepts of economy and ecology, both of which challenge historians to examine the forms of knowledge, norms, and gendered and material practices that shape landscapes of membership and exclusion, through social and interspecies engagements. This year’s Eisenberg theme invites historians to question distinctions between the private and the public, and to investigate the tensions between freedom and coercion.
In this series of lectures and workshops, the Eisenberg Institute invites contributions that explore not just the differences between home and exile, but also their intimate connections and intersections, whether in the realm of the personal, political, material, religious, or environmental. We hope to investigate some of the many forms of historical change that happen at the intersection of home and exile, moments and places where identities are forged, political power is exerted, ecologies are reconfigured, and lives are remade. We invite contributions that span geographic and temporal boundaries and that encourage us to rethink our presumptions about these seemingly antithetical concepts.
