(Migration): Session at the European Association for Urban History Conference: Cities in Motion 2020
At the edge of modernity, the mobility of people characterized metropolises. This panel explores the interactional spaces between Jewish migrants and local, urban populations, and the multifarious cultural articulations that developed. The speakers will raise and answer questions on what these spaces tell us about Jewish/non-Jewish relations, and their impact on the negotiation of urban cultures.
This proposal for a ‘main session’ aims to gather experts and emerging scholars working on the contact point between the fields of Jewish, urban and migration studies. It is organized by Dr. Susanne Korbel, (University of Graz, Austria), and Maja Hultman, (PhD-student at University of Southampton, UK).
The panel approaches the multicultural urban setting of metropolises in the twentieth century. It will investigate the interactional spaces between Jewish migrants and local, urban populations in order to gain insights in relational, cultural, and/or political encounters of Jews and non-Jews, and to ask what kind of shapes these encounters took, as well as what impact they had on cities and their everyday life.
The ’spatial turn’ has explored the Jewish relationship with metropolises for some twenty years, enriching Jewish and urban studies with examples of the multifaceted aspects of Jewish/non-Jewish relations across the continents. The newest research within this area will be presented at this session, in order to discuss the dynamics of the link between Jewish migration and its consequential effect on local, urban environments.
What happened to concrete constructions, public spaces and social, multicultural milieus when Jews - and their ideas, items, languages and rituals - arrived? How did their migrational experience influence local settings, and what role did migration play in their relationship to metropolises and their populations?
The session will investigate methodological approaches to spatiality in the urban context and present a broad spectrum of case studies. Listeners will be able to engage with the impact of Jewish migration in, for example, modern, urban cultures in Eastern and Central Europe, Scandinavia and the US.
- Spokesperson: Maja Hultman, University of Southampton
- Co-organizer(s): Susanne Korbel, University of Graz
- Keywords: Jewish migration | Jewish/non-Jewish relations | Urban spaces
- Time period: Modern period
- Topic(s): Cultural | Architecture and urbanism
- Study area: More than one continent