After a fruitful 34th AEMI conference in Dudelange, you can now find the abstracts of the many interesting papers here on the website.
PANEL I
Chair: Benan Oregi, Officer of Basque Communities Abroad, Basque Government, Basque Country
Paper 1: Glasgow Celtic – more than a football team: History, sport and migration
Liam Campbell, Director, Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster American Folk Park, Northern Ireland
There is the belief that sport has the capacity to embody and express identity and community in its national, cultural, ethnic, religious, social, political, and even economic dimensions in a way that few other social manifestations can match. None more so than Glasgow Celtic Football Club founded in the east end of Glasgow in 1887 by Andrew Kerins, a Marist Christian brother, with the aim of raising funds for its struggling Irish immigrant families. Glasow is the one city in Britain wracked by sectarian strife. The Rangers / Celtic rivalry dominates Scottish football. (Rangers – Protestant, Celtic Catholic as a somewhat simplification) Celtic Football Club, as an institution founded by and for the Irish Catholic immigrant diaspora in the West of Scotland, offers a vivid case study of the study of sport linked to migration, ethnicity and identity. As Thomas Devine notes, the Irish community in Scotland has not, until recent years, “been effectively integrated into the wider study of Scottish historical development. Sport can echo and reproduce ethnic and national distinctiveness, as well as reflect social tensions”. How does it navigate these complex waters? Today, also in Glasgow the GalGael Trust founded in the early 90s, looks at ways of re-rooting notions of identity and belonging in ways that are inclusive not exclusive. They quickly realised that they could achieve many of their social, cultural and ecological aims by involving the community in building boats. The boats are both a “metaphor for transformation – as we journey from one place to another – and tools for achieving our purpose”. Much of their work is with Somalian refugees, who coming from a sea faring nation love boats but are also crazy about soccer. How is this world navigated in their migration story and what are the wider lessons ?
Liam Campbell is Director of the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies based at the Ulster American Folk Park. He has published and lectured widely on heritage and environmental issues. Prior to that he worked as a television producer for some 20 years before returning to academia. He is a visiting lecturer at East Tennessee State University where he spent a year as Basler Chair for Integration of the Arts and Sciences in 2018. With undergraduate degrees from NUI Maynooth and masters degrees from both Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University, he completed his PhD at Ulster University.
Paper 2: Life after work: manifestations of leisure activities of Poles in Washington state as a form of maintaining connection with homeland culture
Joanna Kulpinska, Assistant professor, Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora, Jagiellonian University, Poland
As one Polish saying originated in the early 20th century during the mass migrations from Polish lands to the United States goes: Europe for the peasant, America for the bull. The saying emphasizes the difficulties Polish migrants faced in working in the United States, mostly doing hard physical jobs. To cope with them, therefore, one had to be as strong as a bull. The economic and professional side of migration forms the basis of much of the study of Polish overseas migration. Relatively little space is devoted to leisure activities (Horolets 2018; Horolets et al. 2021). This paper, therefore, will attempt to describe the various forms of leisure activities of Polish migrants and subsequent generations of them living in Washington state, with a particular focus on activities undertaken to maintain ties with the culture of the home country.
Joanna Kulpinska – a graduate in international migration studies, is an assistant professor at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at Jagiellonian University. She has conducted research on migration processes in Poland and the United States. Her research interests include migration studies (especially transatlantic migration), historical sociology and migration policy.
Paper 3: Sport as an instrument of integration and social cohesion in Italian emigration history
Giorgia Barzetti, Curator and coordinator, MEI National Museum of Italian Emigration, Italy
In the history of Italian emigration, sport has played an important role, becoming an instrument of integration and social cohesion. There are many examples of sports clubs, not only football, born on the initiative of Italian migrants: enlightened entrepreneurs, missionary orders and individual personalities gave life, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to aggregative realities become over the years a reference point for the Italian community abroad and in some cases grew to become established clubs at national and international level. The contribution illustrates a part of this phenomenon, through its musealization within the exhibition of the MEI – National Museum of Italian Emigration. The focus of the intervention will be the sports clubs born in different states of South America and in particular the football team of San Lorenzo De Almagro, founded on 1 April 1908 by representatives of the Congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco, an order still active today whose attention to sport as a means of integration and education of children and young people, has never failed. A second deepening will be dedicated instead to the history of an Italian club, the Genoa Cricket and Football Club, the oldest football club in Italy, founded on 7 September 1893 at the British Consulate in Genoa by English citizens who emigrated to Italy for work reasons.
She is currently curator and coordinator of the MEI- National Museum of Italian Emigration project and works for the Mu.Ma- Institution of the Museums of the Sea and Migrations of Genoa.
Since October 2020 she has contributed to the project for the creation of the MEI, open to the public in 2022, coordinating the research and enhancement activities, through new technologies of the national cultural heritage linked to migration. In the three-year period 2017-2020 she was curator of the Mudec – Museum of Cultures of Milan, where she was responsible for the conservation and enhancement of the ethnographic collections. She has also curated and organized several exhibitions, in particular those relating to the “Milan City World” project; a multi-year project, which each year focuses on one of the numerous international communities present in Milan. In the past she was a freelance researcher, working mainly on the cataloguing and digitization of the historical and artistic heritage.
PANEL II
Chair: Adam Walaszek, Prof. Dr. hab. Emeritus, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Paper 1: The role of culture and sport in Basque public diplomacy: the case of San Sebastian. An integrated agenda
Imanol Galdos Irazabal, Director of International Affairs, Department of Culture of the City Council of Donostia, Basque Country
Both of them of recent irruption, cultural diplomacy and sport diplomacy are branches of public diplomacy, which is also a relatively new concept (Cull, 2024). In this context, the proposal I am putting forward is limited to a new field (sports diplomacy, cultural diplomacy and city diplomacy) that coincides with the thematic proposal put forward for the AEMI 2024 congress.
At the moment, in order to better understand the proposal I am working on two projects. On the one hand, the Routlege publishing house will publish in 2025 a Handbook on Sport Diplomacy and I am participating in the project as the author of one of the chapters entitledCultural relations and sport diplomacy: a relational view. Secondly, the CBS (Center of Basque Studies) at the University of Nevada, Reno is working on another project (the Congress has just been held, April 24 and 25, which has brought together fifteen experts from the world of anthropology, sociology, ethnography and sport diplomacy. The project is called “The Basques Through Their Sports”and will culminate in the publication of a book by the Center for Basque Studies Press. In the context of the project, my contribution is the writing of a chapter entitled, “The Basque Sports diplomacy in the post violence era”. Apart from these two specific projects, I am immersed in the culmination of my doctoral thesis, which coincides with my proposal for the AEMI congress. In the general context of the Basque Country, San Sebastian is possibly the model that best represents the role of sport and culture in strengthening the international positioning of a country or a city. The important role that both sport and culture have played in the internal coexistence of Basque society, especially in difficult times, should also be highlighted. Finally, it is worth highlighting (and this aspect touches on the foundational aspects of AEMI) that the paper will address the role of the Basque diaspora in the articulation of Basque public diplomacy, both from the perspective of sport and culture, which are increasingly advancing towards a more integrated agenda.
With over 35 years of experience in Public Administration as a director with responsibilities related to public diplomacy with regards to culture, diaspora, media, education, sports and cities. Director in di erent departments and public institutions. Director of International in the Department of Culture of the City Council of Donostia. Member of multiple international networks in representation of the city of Donostia. Consultant, analyst and advisor in committees and institutions in the Basque Country and internationally. Writer of strategic plans, documents and public reports. Profesor and researcher in universities. Columnist and contributor in the media. Associate Professor at the University of Reno-Nevada (USA). Currently working as Director of Public Diplomacy and International Relations at the Department of Culture with over 260 employees of the city of San Sebastian.
Paper 2: Sport as a means to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue
Elke Murdock, Senior researcher, Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, the University of Luxembourg
Increased migration flows bring with it also increased religious diversity in destination countries. Luxembourg is a case in point. Luxembourg´s population has increased by 81% since 1981, with the proportion of foreign nationals rising steadily from 26,3% in 1981 to 47,4% in 2023 (Statec, 2023). Whilst the early immigration waves originated mainly from predominantly catholic countries of origin (i.e., Italy and Portugal), immigrants are now more heterogeneous, resulting in more religious diversity. Muslims now form the second-largest faith group in Luxembourg. Whilst Muslim residents feel well-integrated, Islamophobia is also present in Luxembourg (OIL, 2019). We will present InterFaith, a small Luxembourg-based ASBL that promotes intercultural and interreligious understanding, using sport as a bridge. Our main event, the InterFaith weekend, is tied to the annual Luxembourg Night Marathon. We bring together local and international participants representing all world religions, but also humanists, and agnostics in running for a more peaceful world. International participants stay with host families in Luxembourg who also take part in the program. Race preparation, physical exertion, and reaching the finishing line are central, unifying targets for all. Apart from the race, we build spaces for encounters and trust-building through fixed program components. These include a welcoming event, the visit to a faith group in Luxembourg where this group is introduced and dialogue promoted, the joint organization of the prayer for peace ahead of the race, and our prize-giving ceremony. Individual sporting achievements are celebrated here, and exchange and togetherness are promoted. InterFaith is one example of bringing together people from Luxembourg´s diverse population and visitors representing different faiths. Over the years, friendships across different faith groups have been established, furthering tolerance and understanding. Yet, it takes time and a dedicated team to make it happen. Theoretical and practical insights will be provided.
Elke Murdock is a senior researcher in the Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Luxembourg. Her research focuses on living with diversity at the individual level – biculturalism, identity construal processes and at the societal level, understanding attitudes towards plurally composed societies, national identity and acculturation processes. She is the author of “Multiculturalism, Identity and Difference: Experiences of Culture Contact” (2016). She is a Board Member of InterFaith and has participated in all InterFaith events as an organizer, half- or team-run participant, and host. Her involvement in InterFaith is a practical extension of her theoretical work.
Paper 3: Sports practice as a motor of human mobility: football – the beautiful game
Maria Beatriz Rocha-Trindade, Sociologist and professor, Universidade Aberta (UAb), Lisbonne, Portugal
Among the multiple situations and very diverse causes that lead to human mobility, sports have been one of the least addressed, thus all the reflection to be carried out in this regard acts as a timely scientific contribution. Considering physical health, as an indispensable basis for psychological well-being (mens sana in corpore sano), the encouragement that has always been expressed in different cultures to maintain and increase it, reveals its importance. It is interesting to analyse, as a paradigm, the practice of a sport that, at individual level and by its social involvement, is capable of assuming its own characteristics. Football, the king of sports, selected for the mobilization it is capable of achieving and the impact it has, both locally and throughout the country, and also for the spread of interest that extends abroad, deserves a very special attention. In the country, at national, regional and local organization levels; the existence of clubs; the constitution of teams; In terms of the way in which the participants act, there are spaces for observing mobility regarding national and foreign contracts, the characteristics of which are interesting to evaluate. Managers, coaches and players, in addition to fans, constitute variables of this great social phenomenon, which mobilizes billions of people around the world. At the level of large-scale observation or that of more restricted audiences and limited competition, whatever the level it assumes, it constitutes an occurrence that integrates multiple facets of mobility.
MBRT is a Sociologist and a full professor at Universidade Aberta (the Portuguese Open University). Her research career begun with a doctorate at Université René Descartes – Sorbonne, in Paris (1970) with a thesis on Portuguese emigration to France. Since then, she published more than two hundred scientific works, in different languages, in Portugal and in various countries in the world; among them, she is the author of several books, including a well-known Portuguese textbook, Sociologia das Migrações. International as well as internal migrations and cultural relations have always been her dominant fields of interest. She was the founder of the Centro de Estudos das Migrações e das Relações Interculturais, in Lisbon (a R&D Unit of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) where she works as a senior research scientist. She belongs to several international scientific associations and networks and is a member of editorial boards or referee for journals and revues dedicated to the study of migration issues. In Portugal, she was awarded the “Portuguese Grã-Cruz of Ordem da Instrução Pública”; she also holds the “French Order Nationale du Mérite”, with the rank of Chavalier. Recently, was granted a dual distinction: the “Grand Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris” and the “Medal of Honor from the Sousa Mendes/Bordeaux Committee”.
Panel III
Moderator: Christina A. Ziegler-McPherson
Emma Barnhøj Jeppesen, Curator at Migration Museum of Denmark. Greet Voorhoof, Collection manager, Red Star Line Museum, Antwerp, Belgium. Marie Grünter, Research scientist, German Emigration Center, Bremerhaven, Germany. Judit Söderblom, Archivist at the Swedish Emigrant Institute in Växjö, Sweden.
Material culture has long been used as a source of information in migration studies, e.g., as historical testimonies that shed light on how sports, culture and arts have shaped identity and community cohesion. However, technology, professional standards and even state actors are influencing the collection and preservation of migration-related objects. Collecting institutions face the challenge that many migrants bring little material culture with them. In most cases, this lack is due to specific policies of receiving countries, to the practicalities of moving internationally or the distance between institutions and immigrant communities. Thus, the material culture related to the migration experience itself is often limited, and much of the material culture available reflects the experiences of life in the new home versus in the previous home. Displaying institutions experience challenges in telling migration stories using original objects, whereas collecting institutions confront questions of provenance and of how digital materials fit with their responsibility to collect, preserve and display material culture. There is also the question of whether the material culture available dictates exhibition narratives or whether objects are used to illustrate a pre-determined story. This workshop will address the related questions: What is a source? What is an object? How can ownership of one’s own migration story be balanced with the needs and expectations of museums and universities? Drawing on specific examples of the cultural heritage of migrants from their collections, curators and archivists from Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Germany will give an 8-minute presentation of a theoretical or methodological dilemma that their institutions face. Then workshop participants will have 50 minutes to discuss their experiences in regards to these issues. The goal is to provide a platform for a broader discussion on how knowledge institutions can encourage more innovation in collection and preservation in relation to migration studies.
Emma Barnhøj Jeppesen is a curator at the Migration Museum of Denmark in Farum, Denmark. MMD collects and exhibits material and immaterial testimonies from the past 500 years of migration history in Denmark. Bram Beelaert is a curator at the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp, Belgium. Located in the historical departure halls of the Red Star Line shipping company, the museum collects migration stories from the past and present. Marie Grünter is a research scientist at the German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, Germany. The GEC collects and exhibits material and immaterial vestiges of migration from and to Germany from the 18th century to the present. Judit Söderblom is an archivist at the Swedish Emigrant Institute in Växjö, Sweden. SEI collects, preserves and makes available materials with emphasis on the Swedish emigration to North America from the 1840s to the 1930s. Christina A. Ziegler-McPherson is a historian in Bremen, Germany, who has curated several exhibitions about trans-Atlantic migration in Germany and in the United States.
PANEL IV
Chair: Machteld Venken, Professor of Contemporary Transnational History and Head of Research Unit Luxembourg History at the Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg
Paper 1: Cultural Heritage and Integration: The Luxembourg-American Experience
Véronique Faber, Doctoral researcher, Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg
This presentation explores the role of culture in the integration of immigrants, with a focus on the 19th-century immigration from Luxembourg to the USA. This immigration was driven by several factors, primarily economic ones. The host country, North America, held the promise of freedom and economic opportunity. Luxembourgers in America were able to establish a strong sense of identity and community. This has cultivated a pro-Luxembourg sentiment that persists today, materializing through a broad cultural offering. The presentation delves into the socio-cultural dynamics that facilitated the integration of Luxembourg immigrants into American society. It underscores the significance of cultural transfers from Luxembourg, exemplified by the funfair ‘Schueberfouer’. Established as an annual market in the 14th century, this funfair is held at the end of summer in Luxembourg City. It is replicated in Chicago, Illinois, by Luxembourg immigrants, who understood that social gatherings, such as funfairs, can serve as a platform not only for assimilation into the new country but also for the reinforcement of shared cultural heritage. Through this example, the presentation investigates the tension between maintaining a connection to a country of origin and embracing an American identity. It suggests that cultural elements serve as tangible and performative expressions of this imagined or reconstructed cultural heritage. Through this lens, the presentation offers a nuanced understanding of the immigrant experience, highlighting the intricate interplay between culture, identity, and integration. It contributes to the broader discourse on immigration, underscoring the enduring relevance of cultural heritage in shaping immigrant identities and facilitating their integration into new societies.
Véronique Faber works at the University of Luxembourg’s Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) and will study the intertwining of the national, transregional and transnational in popular fairground culture in Luxembourg, using the example of the Schueberfouer, as well as how this intertwining changed in the period from 1945 to 1975. This empirical case study is part of the “Popular Culture Transnational – Europe in the Long 1960s” project. She holds a M. Phil. in Social Anthropology and African studies from the University of Vienna and a Higher Diploma in Arts Administration from the University College Dublin. Her interests are cultural practices, socio-economic and political influences on culture and society.
Paper 2: Performing pluralistic societies. Interculturality and internationalisation in Luxembourg’s theatre 1980-2020
Corina Ostafi, Doctoral researcher and theatre maker, Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg
In the 1980s, theatre in Luxembourg experienced a displacement of structural and aesthetic criteria leading to a renewal in form and practice. Driven by the power of global capital and the spread of human migration, this development has, on one side, evinced the detachment from a folkloristic and vernacular theatre deeply embedded in the cultural scene. On the other side, it has marked the emergence of a prolific theatrical landscape that drew inspiration primarily from outside the borders and looked to align with the foreign artistic movements of the time. To navigate the intricacies of Luxembourg’s culturally diverse society, as reflected in theatrical practices, I will first examine the impact of internationalisation on its theatre landscape by studying socio-political factors that shaped theatre in the last four decades. Following this, I will conduct my analysis of case studies by employing the concept of interculturality. This is understood as an experiment or a fluid practice where negotiations between identity and alterity, nationality and internationality, integration and diversity etc. are taking place. This dynamic process provides yielding material for the ephemeral art of theatre that may, for instance, reflect hyper-diverse societies, reimagine identities beyond borders, or test models of coexistence. In light of these considerations, the research seeks to explore how intercultural implications and internationalisation phenomena have been manifested in Luxembourgish theatre institutions, productions, and reception over the past 40 years. Specifically, it examines changes in aesthetics, alterations in programs, programmatic directions, the participation of diverse range of artists, as well as the discourse variations in the theatre reviews. To achieve this objective, the study will draw on cultural, social, and performance theories, supplemented by archival research, oral history, and performance and reception analysis.
Corina Ostafi is a doctoral researcher and theatre maker. She transitioned from managing social innovations and political education projects across Europe and the Caucasus region to focusing on performing arts and academic research. Her Ph.D at the University of Luxembourg investigates the transformations of the Luxembourgish theatre from 1980 to present, complementing her MA and BA degrees in Theater Studies and Literature obtained in Luxembourg, Germany, Romania, and Denmark. For her work, she has received prestigious scholarships from the German Bundestag, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, and most recently, the Luxembourg National Research Fund.
Paper 3: Musical aspirations on the border. Industrial hierarchies, mobilities, and music-playing in Minett and Lorraine, post-WWII
Laura Steil, Postdoctoral researcher, Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg
Actively recruiting foreigners from the late 19th century onwards, the steel industry has profoundly influenced the demographic, social, and cultural development of the Greater Region. Italian migrants, in particular, played in important role in workers’ social and associative life, through their engagement in local harmonies and orchestras. This paper offers to examine mine and factory workers’ “other work” as musicians in the neighbouring regions of Minett (Luxembourg) and Lorraine (France), focusing on the decades after WWII. It will reflect on how this travail à-côté (Weber 1989) can shed light on the articulations between “free-time”, industrial hierarchies, and social aspirations, in particular (but not only) for migrant workers. Studying steel workers’ lives through the lens of their musical travail à-côté, invites to question conceptions of “free-time” and revisit its relation to the private sphere, family life and leisure. Examining experiences of Italian and Luxembourgish workers, who played music à-côté on both sides of the Luxembourgish-French border, offers insights into practices and dreams of border-crossing, at once geographical and social. These musicians’ “work beyond work” opened a “potential space” (Fouquet 2017 following Winnicott 1971) between the “real” and the “possible”, where they could creatively interact and play with their material, social and cultural environment, projecting their imagination, but also their very economies, towards new and different forms of existence. Drawing on oral history interviews and archival work, this paper will present some of the results of the postdoctoral project “Dancing” carried out at the university of Luxembourg, as part of the FNR-DFG-funded interdisciplinary research group Popkult60 on European popular culture in the long Sixties.
Laura Steil holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, France (2015). Her work focuses on popular and social dance practices and environments, using ethnographic, historiographic and embodied-participatory methods. For her postdoctoral project at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), university of Luxembourg, she examines post-WWII balls in the Luxembourgish Minett region, with a focus on Esch-sur-Alzette. She is particularly interested in cultural circulations, collective memory and social inequalities in contexts characterised by generational, social, or spatial ruptures such as those induced by migration.
Paper 4: Integration through Participation: Newcomers’ Activism in a New Country (newcomers / refugee – who has been forced to flee their country because of war)
Kateryna Zakharchuk, Postdoctoral researcher, Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg
Newcomers’ participation in cultural, sporting, artistic, volunteer activities, and professional associations affects their integration process in a new country. Based on the testimonies of Ukrainians who have lived their first two years in Luxembourg after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, we will explore how these activities help overcome barriers, promote social connections, and improve overall well-being. Newcomers’ integration is essential for building cohesive societies, and an intersectional approach is vital for understanding the refugee experience. Refugees’ participation in local cultural events, festivals, and exhibitions plays a significant role in their integration. Cultural centers and public organizations, such as Lukraine Asbl – Ukrainian Community in Luxembourg UA, Commune de Strassen, and La Maison ukrainienne de Strassen, support these efforts. Art projects involving refugees, such as art exhibitions (like “Unveiled Ukraine” in Brussels by Ukrainian photographer Kateryna Mostova), musical concerts, provide a platform for expression and healing. Participation in Successful volunteer projects illustrate how volunteering can help refugees find support and strengthen ties with the local population. As from dance teacher to manager of Strassen’s Ukraine house.
Success stories of professional associations created for and by refugees (as the Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network (LURN), demonstrate their impact on integration and professional development in a new country. Despite these positive outcomes, refugees face significant challenges and barriers, such as language barriers and cultural differences. Addressing these obstacles requires comprehensive strategies and recommendations to improve access to these activities. Presenting these testimonies and examples will help better understand the importance of an intersectional approach in developing refugee support and integration programs.
Kateryna Zakharchuk is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH). Her research interests include Interdisciplinary research; International cooperation; Digitalisation and data science; Digital archives; Project management; Education: non-formal learning; Forced migration; Oral history; Border studies; The ethics of collecting, preserving, analyzing, and disclosing testimonies of war. Kateryna joined C²DH in June 2022 as a visiting fellow and became a postdoctoral researcher in September 2022, working on the project “24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War”. The project documents the human experience of the ongoing war in Ukraine and abroad.
PANEL V
Chair: Dietmar Osses, Representative Director, Ruhr Museum, Essen, Germany
Paper 1: The SC Maccabi Lëtzebuerg – Luxembourgs’ first jewish sports’ club
Daniel Thilman, Research assistant, Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg
SC Maccabi Lëtzebuerg was founded by Jewish people in Luxembourg at the beginning of the 1930s. Most of the co-founders were Eastern Jews who had immigrated to Luxembourg in the 1920s. Many of them joined the club not only out of sporting interest, but were also committed to the Zionist ideal of emigration to Palestine, although some were firmly rooted in Luxembourg society. In Luxembourg, SC Maccabi was a founding member of the table tennis association in the 1930s. Its team not only took part in the Luxembourg association championship, it even won the championship! Its football team played friendly matches against other Maccabi clubs in the Greater Region and throughout Germany. The outbreak of the Second World War and the subsequent occupation of Luxembourg heralded the end of SC Maccabi. Some of its members flee from the anti-semitic decrees that come into force and manage to save themselves. Others are killed in the camps of Eastern Europe. In our presentation, we will look at the origins of the SC Maccabi members and their immigration routes to Luxembourg. We will explain the extent to which this unique sports club was also a reflection of Luxembourg society in the 1920s and 1930s, characterised by immigration and emigration as well as waves of refugees. In this way, we will illustrate that the term “Muscular Judaism”, coined by Marx Nordau in 1898, became a reality in Luxembourg after a thirty-year delay and that the Zionist idea was implemented in the country. We will show to what extent SC Maccabi members from Luxembourg took part in the Maccabiah Games in Palestine. It will thus become clear that SC Maccabi was much more than just a sports club. It promoted sport in order to unite its members politically und prepare them for emigration.
Born in 1976, studied history at the universities of Metz, Franche-Comté (Besançon) and Nancy 2 and has been teaching since 2009 at the Lycée Nic-Biever in Dudelange. Research since 2004 on the Jewish minority in Luxembourg and the border region, and the settlement and persecution of Roma/Sinti minority in Luxembourg during the Nazi occupation. Worked in 2013 – 2015 at the then Musée national de la Résistance in Esch as a research assistant and since september 2021 as a research assistant at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) at the University of Luxembourg.
Paper 2: Spare time activities and the performance of identity – danish Guest workers in the 1970’s
Dragan Jovanovic, Research assistant, Migration Museum of Denmark
In 2022-23 Migration Museum of Denmark gathered testimonies from Danish citizens with roots in Turkey, former Yugoslavia, Pakistan, India, and Morocco. They arrived in Denmark around 1970 mainly to meet the demands of the increasing industrial production in Western Europe. But many were also curious on exploring and living a life beyond work in their new temporary homes in Danish industrial cities. In the presentation I will provide a look into testimonies about everyday life in Denmark from migrants’ point of view. Thoughts about how Danes of the 70s lived and behaved, the national migrant clubs of early 70s as center for social life, the family reunification in Denmark throughout the decade, the necessary acquiring of larger apartments and the new possibilities for a social life at home, national parties and dances, concerts with musicians from the homeland, and national football clubs and tournaments with other migrant clubs and with local Danish clubs. Living apart from a familiar milieu, from the traditional lifestyle of the rural communities in the country of origin, the possibilities for individual agency, actions and performance of identity was suddenly linked to a new place and a different culture. Migrants’ personal awareness of identity and self-perception increases in a foreign host country and would lead to either strengthening of a known identity or exploring new sides of one’s self-perception. The presentation centers around immigrants’ own accounts, their experience, expectations, and reflections on the transformation of a temporary stay with the purpose of working, into a permanent existence with options, choices, and possibilities in a new country. The spare time is one’s free time. But to what extend is the performance that is carried out beyond work separated from the ‘rules and norms’ that regulates the performance of ‘migrant laborer’ or ‘guest worker’ in the workplace?
Graduated in History 2022. Research Assistant at the Migration Museum of Denmark since fall 2022. Preparation and carrying out of Oral History interviews with around 50 individuals with migrant background. A forthcoming research article ready for peer-review in the fall of 2024 at the journal Gransk. My second research project for 2024 involves the collection of testimonies from first generation descendants of the same migrant group who participated in my initial project. I am currently responsible for facilitating the ongoing involvement and cooperation with our informants and donors who have become volunteer story tellers and museum hosts at the Migration Museum of Denmark.
Paper 3: Portraying migrants in a museum – experiences from a co-creating project at The House of Emigrants, Växjö, Sweden
Alexandra Stiernspetz Nylén, Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Research at Kulturparken Småland (KPS), Sweden
The House of Emigrants is an institution that mainly has depicted Swedish emigration to Northern America, 1850–1930. However, migration is not to be seen as a fixed phenomenon, bound in time and space, but a movement in constant change. In recent years, a desire and need has emerged to to widen the institute’s activities towards broader migration issues. As part of this, we have launched a project called Migration Stories in the Past and Present. Within the project, we examine new practices for collaborating with civil society. In 2022, we invited a number of persons whom migrated to Sweden at different times and for different reasons, to participate in both filmed interviews and self-produced podcasts. One main focus for us was finding ways to show different people‘s complex experiences and existences. We wanted to avoid the participants being reduced to just being migrants and portrayed only as victims of their own history. But how to avoid exotification and recreating the stereotypical image of a migrant as just a migrant? And how do we as a museum avoid creating unequal power situations, one-sidedness, prejudices and giving ourselves interpretive privilege? Do we dare to challenge our own conception of what the meeting will bring, the very end result? The experiences for the participants and for us as an institution were partly unexpected and difficult. Expectations from participants, audience and board of instition can, for example, be difficult to reconcile and the result difficult to predict. At the same time, practices like this can create unique and long-term relationships with society outside the museum’s walls.
In our presentation, we want to give the audience an insight into our considerations, pitfalls and experiences as a cultural institution of working co-creatively with civil society to broaden contemporary and future representations of migration.
Alexandra Stiernspetz Nylén is Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Research at Kulturparken Småland (KPS), Sweden. KPS is a regional organization working with collections, archives, public activities and research. Alexandra is currently leading a three-year project on historical and current migration in connection to The House of Emigrants and the Swedish Emigrant Institute, both parts of Kulturparken Småland.
Paper 4: How to memorialize and exhibit (im)migration history during times of migration controversies?
Simone Blaschka, Director, German Emigration Center, Bremerhaven, Germany
After 1830, Bremerhaven developed into one of the busiest ports of emigration in continental Europe. Thus, after its opening in 2005, the German Emigration Center originally exhibited European migration to overseas. In 2012, the museum expanded its exhibition and collection to include 300 years of immigration history to Germany/its predecessor states. Although emigration and immigration often appeared as simultaneous phenomena in German history, until then a museum on the theme of immigration to Germany didn’t exist. During the next decade, debates on migration policies as well as memorialization have undergone major changes. While the museum deals with historical migration phenomena, media and the public ask for orientation not only during long term debates on representation, but also specifically during current developments, e. g. the „Long Summer of Migration“ in 2015. The museum took this into account by incorporating Syrian immigration to Germany into its permanent exhibition shortly afterwards. Nevertheless, the museum didn’t cease asking itself: How (fast) should a historical institution react to current phenomena? The presentation will examine the changes that originated from this and other fundamental questions in 2021, when the permanent exhibition was renewed. It will focus on two neighboring exhibition rooms: The Hall of Debates exhibits four historical migration debates in the Federal Republic of Germany between 1949 and 2000. It differentiates between various social actors, their role in society and thus facilitates orientation in understanding public debates. Part of the exhibition room is a huge collection of German language literature collected by activist, artist and writer Fruttuoso Piccolo. The Salon of Biographies II, on the other hand, acts as a counterpart. It is designed as quiet room in which visitors may explore individual migration objects and stories since the 18th century.
Simone Blaschka, PhD, is a historian specializing in German overseas emigration. Since 2006, she is the Director of German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, Germany. The museum exhibits more than 300 years of migration history from and to Germany. Under her directorate, the museum has been extended twice and over 40 special exhibitions were created.
Marie Grünter is historian specializing in Eastern and Central European history. Since 2018, she is a curator at the German Emigration Center and was part of the team developing the renewal of the permanent exhibition in 2021.
PANEL VI
Chair: Emma Barnhøj Jeppesen, Curator at Migration Museum of Denmark
Paper 1: Of sea, languages and photography: the image as a form of art and communication for emigrants
Elisa Gosso, Educator and teacher, Associazione Culturale Pensieri in Piazza, Italy
‘There is no sea here’ is the title of the photo book we published with Panerose, the independent publishing house of our cultural association, in 2023. The book is the result of a project: the photography course for young refugees hosted by the Diaconia Valdese (Pinerolo, Italy). The project led to the realisation of a series of shots on the territory where immigrant girls and boys were hosted for a certain period. These images embody the authors’ various interpretations on the places where they lived, the people they met and the events they were involved in after having emigrated. Photography constituted in this experience a tool with multiple potentialities: in addition to learning some more technical and artistic notions related to the creation of photographic images, photography also and above all constituted an alternative and accessible language to express oneself in the absence of verbal language (the course participants were newcomers and therefore not very literate in Italian). Starting from the contents of some interviews that I, as an anthropologist, conducted on this project, the presentation that I propose will focus on the contents of the volume, spacing between the specific case and the more general literature on the subject.
An anthropologist (PhD), I received my degree in Cultural Anthropology in 2009 and my PhD in Psychological, Anthropological and Educational Sciences in 2017 from the University of Turin, Italy. I work in education and teaching. My research focused mainly on the field of migration studies. I later broadened my interests towards anthropological perspectives related to linguistics and translation, glottodidactics, cognitive sciences and educational sciences. My publications include “Anthropology of Transformations of Consciousness”, Edizioni Altravista (with F. Gosso) and “Translating. Bringing worlds together, building relationships’ Paneros Editore (ed.). The complete list of my publications can be viewed on my personal blog.
Paper 2: Voices from Solitude: The Basque Tree Carvings in the American West
Iñaki Arrieta Baro, Basque librarian at University of Nevada Reno, USA
Scattered around the groves in the mountainous areas of the Western states in the US, thousands of wri[en words and drawings decorate the barks of aspen trees: lertxunmarrak Basque tree carvings or arborglyphs. Created by sheepherders from the late 19th century until the 1990s, tree carvings gave voice to the inner life, concerns, and interests of a migrant group not always wellrepresented in the archival record. In this presentation, we will review the topics portrayed in these unique cultural artifacts through the collections held by the Jon Bilbao Basque Library and the preservation effort led by the Lertxun-Marrak/The Arborglyph Collaborative research project.
Since 2015 Arrieta has led the Jon Bilbao Basque Library, a highly specialized unit focused on serving researchers from all around the world interested in Basque Studies. He has guided the transfer of Basque digital collections to the preservation repository, and the organization of workshops and conferences in connection with Basque topics and digital humanities. Building upon his experience in the Basque Country, he has focused the library on the Basque Diaspora in the US, establishing relationships with members of the Basque community and its associations in order to be a partner in everything connected to the preservation of its documentary legacy.
PANEL VII
Chair: Chair: Imanol Galdos Irazabal
Director of International Affairs, Department of Culture of the City Council of Donostia, Basque Country
Paper 1
“The name is Diamant” – The migratory life of Kafka’s last love, the Jewish actress and activist Dora Diamant (1898-1952)
Konstantin Rometsch
Research associate, Porta Polonica – Digital Documentation Centre for the Culture and History of Poles, Bochum, Germany
The proposed contribution will shed light on the eventful life of the still relatively unknown last
companion (1923-24) of the writer Franz Kafka, Dworja Diament (Dora Dymant in Yiddish), who was born in 1898 in the central Polish district capital Pabianice, south of Łódź. She spent her childhood in Będzin in Lesser Poland, on the edge of the Russian-controlled mining region of Congress Poland in Upper Silesia. Her father was a model of an erudite Hasid, who read ancient Hebrew, spoke Yiddish and German as well as Polish and strictly observed the practical commandments of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Dora thus grew up in a world of tightly meshed religious rules, where individual life plans were not envisaged, especially for women. She began her struggle for a broader Jewish education early in life. She secretly joined a Zionist group, twice ran away from a school for girls in Krakow, and finally, aged 21, escaped to Berlin to lead a self-determined life. In 1919, she officially registered herself under a German version of her name: Dora Diamant. In 1923, she met the writer Franz Kafka in Müritz on the Baltic coast, fell in love with him and remained at his side until his death eleven months later. From 1926 to 1930, she worked as an actress in Düsseldorf, Neuss and other Rhenish city theatres. She subsequently joined the KPD, the Communist Party of Germany, and in 1932 married Lutz Lask, the editor of the communist newspaper “Die Rote Fahne”. In 1936, she fled with him and her daughter to the Soviet Union, before travelling to Britain in 1940 to live in exile. She died in London on 15 August 1952, following a long illness. The presentation will also include selected sequences from a short documentary film about Dora produced by our documentation centre, in order to contribute a different perspective to the numerous publications and productions on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Kafka’s death this year.
Konstantin Rometsch (Porta Polonica, The digital Documentation Centre for the Culture and History of Poles in Germany, Bochum/Germany – www.porta-polonica.de) is a trained historian, who studied in Gießen, Wrocław and Glasgow. Apart from various fellowships, he was awarded the ‘Scientific Promotion Award of the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland’. He worked at the Universities of Gießen and Cologne specializing in East European Studies. Conducting research in various countries, he is in particular interested in biographical and transnational approaches as well as in the history of migration and displacement.
Paper 2
Visual and material representations of Greek post-war labour migration. Fieldwork in Hamburg; Subjectivity, Representation II. Re-activating the filmic archive
Chris Zisis
Research Assistant Lecturer, Department of Social Work & Public Health, University of Applied Sciences Kiel, Germany
In this contribution I will illustrate strands of my fieldwork in the city of Hamburg, which formed Chapter 4, titled Subjectivity, Representation II. Re-activating the filmic archive of my PhD Dissertation (EKW, Hamburg University). This chapter is comprised of fieldwork, interviews, as well as discussion and tentative conclusions from a closed event I co-organized with an unofficial network of Greek female migrants, called “Greek Women of Hamburg”, which entailed a film screening and an extensive group discussion. One of the films we watched, which activated discussion and triggered the sharing of embodied experience(s) and memories of the participating group, the majority of whom are part of the so-called Gastarbeiterkinder/children of the guest-workers in Germany, is the first film by Lefteris Xanthopoulos’ trilogy on migration, titled Griechische Gemeinde Heidelberg (1976), which also constituted a central part of my ethnographic data analysis. A description of the group discussion, highlighting “relational ethics” in research, experiences of participants, memory work (feminist perspectives), gender aspects, identity articulations, subjectivity, inter-generational transfer of traumatic memories (see Post-memory, Hirsch 1997), labour exploitation, psychological effects of labour work is to be read in this chapter, while this whole effort and reflexive ethnographic experience can be conceived as a part of community work, or at least a short-term effort of reactivating a small network of Greek migrant women who reside in Hamburg, and belong to the so-called second generation of migrant workers in Germany.
Chris Zisis (He) holds a PhD in cultural and social anthropology from the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/EKW, Hamburg University. Moreover he holds a Master’s Degree in the field of
Heritage/Museum Studies (European University Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder) and a B.A. degree in
Philosophy and History of Science (National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece). Since Spring Semester 2017 has been working consistently as a Lecturer at the department of Social Work & Public Health, University of Applied Sciences Kiel. Along with his standard research foci, which intersect fields such as Museum/Heritage Studies, Migration research, public anthropology, critical and anti-racist education, he is equally interested in examining artistic practices and interventions, new social movements/nonmovements, eventually how critical knowledge is (co-) produced by “bottom-up”, unofficial archives and actors, not only in museum/memory sites, but public space.
Paper 3
Intentional Communities as Modern Descendants of Old Utopian Migration
Teuvo Peltoniemi
Director of Sosiomedia Oy, Helsinki, Finland
As a migration researcher, my primary study subjects have been old utopian communities. Intentional communities can be seen as the modern descendants of these utopian communities, sharing similar aspirations for alternative living but adapting to contemporary contexts and often taking a more pragmatic approach to their goals. There is also more international and even global internal and external migration in these modern utopias. Below, I will primarily use the term “intentional” to describe communities that are also referred to as alternative, hippie, free, independent, eco, etc. My research material comes from the following communities: Koinonia (USA), Los Portales (Spain), La Bolina (Spain), Christiania (Denmark), Keuruun Ekokylä (Finland), and As One Community (Japan). There are thousands of intentional communities worldwide, mostly in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Auroville in India has 2,500 members, The Farm in the USA has 1,500 members, and Damanhur in Italy has 1,000 members. However, the majority of intentional communities are quite small. Estimating their number is challenging because communities frequently form and disband, and membership is often fluid. Not all are members of Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) or other larger networks. Intentional communities are often highly international, as their values and ideologies are global, attracting people worldwide who share a commitment to environmental sustainability, social justice, and alternative lifestyles. For many, these communities offer a meaningful and communal way of life. On-line platforms facilitate connections with distant communities, and many invite foreign members through work exchange programs. Some communities work also closely with immigrants and asylum seekers, offering them a place to live and integrate into the community. Examples of this can be found in many countries in Europe.
Intentional communities form a new group of migration!
Teuvo Peltoniemi (born 1950) is a Finnish writer, journalist, researcher, educator, and eHealth developer specialized on addictions. Since the 1970s he has been contributing by research and journalism to increase public awareness in Finland for many taboo societal problems, like general speed limits, family violence, sexual abuse of children, situation of children of alcohol abusing parents, and net addiction. After retirement he now writes about social issues in his blog at Iltalehti evening paper, and in science journals and books as well as maintains two sites on the Finnish Utopian Communities.
