The Jordan Center’s Diasporas Project
Sponsored by the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. The idea of a diaspora may imply that a person belongs somewhere other than where they live. It is a notion that might be shared by Russians, Irish, Palestinians, and Jews, as this session shows. But do they all really plan to go back there, and where is there?
The Diasporas Project at NYU
The Diasporas Project is a series organized by the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia in spring 2013. It is part of the Center’s inaugural year and we are grateful to the many units around NYU that have been offering help and guidance. Sessions are co-organized with Ireland House (31 January – 1 February), Kevorkian (14 – 15 March), and Hebrew and Judaic Studies (25 26 April).
The overarching purpose of the project is twofold: to consider the shared characteristics and shared assumptions that underpin the idea of a diaspora, and in the process erode our parochialisms; and to better grasp what is at stake and what is assumed when we cast movement as a diaspora rather than say an emigration, a migration, sex trafficking, slavery, or a flow of refugees. The project in no way aims to settle these questions one way or another; rather it aims to address them intelligently and forthrightly, as a guide to students and colleagues.
Returns
25 April 2013
Nadim Bawalsa, MEIS, NYU
David Engel, HJS, NYU
Joe Lee, Ireland House, NYU
Peter Gatrell, The University of Manchester
