”The Forty Years' Crisis: Refugees in Europe, 1919-1959” is the title of a conference that will be held at Birkbeck, University of London on 14-16 September 2010. The conference organisers are Dr Jessica Reinisch (Birkbeck), Dr Matthew Frank (Leeds).

The conference will offer a uniquely comprehensive perspective on European refugees, refugee crises and responses within their international and global context. It aims to bring together the latest research on the development of approaches to the management of refugees in twentieth-century Europe, with particular reference to the initiatives and work conducted by the United Nations, its precursor organizations and other international bodies.

The conference is concerned both with the responses to refugee crises and their political and historiographical afterlives. The conference will adopt a pan-European perspective, which locates the European refugees, refugee crises and responses in an international and global context. It will thereby reflect on the role played by the problem of European crises in the new international structures of 1919, and how this had changed by 1959.

More information, registration and conference programme available here, conference e-mail: fortyyearscrisis@googlemail.com

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