Migrants Moving History

Talk by Saskia Sassen within the framework of the conference Migration in Museums: Narratives of Diversity in Europe (audio recording available)

History matters. It matters even more when societies become increasingly diverse - each a vessel for peoples from all over the world, and each a different type of vessel.

Immigration shaped Western societies into mosaics of ethnic, cultural and social particularities. Diversity has long posed challenges to, and created opportunities for social cohesion. And it does so today, more than ever before perhaps. Two important elements are crucial within this context, political membership and structures of collective identity. Historically citizenship has been the format for belonging and for identity. How is it doing today? What are our options? The talk by Prof. Sassen will analyze these challenges and point to future perspectives of dealing with history and citizenship in immigration societies.

Recording available

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Old Building is marked in green

Where

Old Building, ground level, Glass Courtyard
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin

Where, when, what?

The glass courtyard is filled with people and illuminated in purple. — Audio recording of the talk by Saskia Sassen; Jewish Museum Berlin 2008

Prof. Dr. Saskia Sassen is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia/New York University in New York. Suhrkamp Verlag has just published her new book under the title Das Paradox des Nationalen.

The event takes place within the framework of the conference Migration in Museums: Narratives of Diversity in Europe.
The conference is co-organized by the Jewish Museum Berlin, in cooperation with the Einstein Forum Potsdam.