Tuesday, March 10, 20202:00 PM - 3:30 PM
10383 Bunche Hall
At the end of the Second World War, the Federal Republic of Germany introduced a policy of welcoming populations of German extraction from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (Aussiedler). Thus, between 1950 and 1989, 242,326 ethnic Germans left Romania. This migration was the subject of particular surveillance practices by the Romanian state and its secret police; indeed, the Securitate opened a file for each candidate to German “repatriation.” My presentation is based on an investigation into the thousands of secret police files concerning the Aussiedler, which are now part of the 25 linear kilometers of materials administered by Romania’s National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS). These previously unexamined archival materials document the surveillance and repression of the population intending to emigrate, and represent an important investigative collection for the history and sociology of migration.
Dana Diminescu is Associate Professor in sociology at Télécom Paris, Institut Politechnique de Paris, where she coordinates the DiasporasLab. She is known for her work on the “connected migrant” – her empirical work enabled her to approach varied fields ranging from uses of mobile phone and voice IT, Internet, m-transactions by migrants in a variety of transnational and local use situations: mobility and mobilisation, integration strategies, cross-bordering, web diasporas, ethnic business, migration lifecycles – and for a number of epistemological and methodological innovations questioning classical theories in migration studies. In particular, she designed and co-ordinated the e-Diasporas Atlas project, which was first runner up in its category for the 2012 Digital Humanities Awards.
Cost : Free and open to the public. RSVP not required for admission.
Sponsor(s): Center for European and Russian Studies, Center for Study of International Migration