| This project explored the relationship between migrants and the things they carry in order to shed new light on the dynamics of migration and the historical transformation of material culture on a global scale. |
Both migration and material culture have profoundly shaped societies and cultures across the globe in the modern era. This project explored the relationship between people and things in motion in order to shed light on both the dynamics of migration and the historical transformation of material culture. The research team defined migration broadly, to include intra-state, international and intra-imperial migration, as well as "forced" and "voluntary” migrations. The project's use of material culture was also inclusive, embracing the objects that furnish domestic interiors, cityscapes, tools, jewelry, books, toys, and clothing. The precise relationships between migration and material culture have varied dramatically across time, space, and political and social context. The goal of this project was to analyze and thereby be able to explain the diversity of these relationships and experiences. This project brought together curators, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists working in the United States, Europe, and Israel to consider the relationship between migration and material culture from these disciplinary perspectives. A series of papers presented at workshops organized by the research team were subsequently collected in a volume on migration and material culture titled Objects of War, published by Cornell University Press in 2018.
Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor in Western Civilization in the College; Professor of European Social History
University of Chicago
The primary national focus of Leora Auslander's research is modern France, but she has found herself intrigued by research problems best treated transnationally. Her most recent book, Cultural Revolutions, moves across the Atlantic world from Britain, to colonial and early national...
Roman Family Director, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society; Hanna Holborn Gray Professor of History
University of Chicago
Tara Zahra is Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium and Hanna Holborn Gray Professor of History at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on the transnational history of modern Europe, migration, the family, nationalism, and humanitarianism. She is the author of Against...
