Endangered Scholars: Globalizing the Long History of an Emergent Category. Introduction

Abstract

“Endangered scholars,” while an apparently self-explanatory notion, is also a historically contested one. When during the early twentieth century the “age of the intellectual” overlapped with the “age of the refugee,” the concept emerged in a contingent process connected to developing societal ruptures, humanitarian efforts, academic self-organization, and politically loaded institutional agendas. It is based on the recognition that in modern society scholars and intellectuals occupy an important position that both exposes them to distinct threats and leads to the need for specific freedoms and forms of relief. What started out with spontaneous campaigns for exiled intellectuals and scholars after World War I, and particularly the October Revolution, slowly but steadily developed into a global yet fragile system of protection. This general development, however, was defined by conflicting categorizations of those in need, varying definitions of what constituted “endangerment,” and differing assessments of what forms of aid were even required for academics and intellectuals. This introduction notes the key stages in this process, identifies aims and issues emerging in the course of it, and highlights the similarities and differences in the respective efforts taken to protect endangered scholars over the course of the last century. Herewith it also introduces each chapter of this volume, in carving out a new and complex perspective on the history and politics of defining and protecting endangered scholars.

This edited volume emerges from exchanges initiated during the conference “‘Endangered’ Scholars and ‘Rescue’ Policies. Recent Research and Future Prospects” held in June 2018 at the Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, in cooperation with the Université Paris Lumières, Institut des Sciences Sociales du Politique CNRS, Université Paris Nanterre, Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, Osnabrück University, and Bard College Berlin. The conference and this publication were financially supported by the Franco-German University and the French and Swiss Embassies in Germany via the Procope program.