Statelessness and visions of belonging

So what does it mean to be stateless? How did statelessness become – and continues to be – a mass phenomenon, and what are the practical consequences of this?

Miriam Rürup, Director of the Moses Mendelsohn Centre in Potsdam, discusses in this instalment of the Digital Lecture Series how the ‘right to have rights’ is reflected in legal and social terms beyond the confines of nation-state affiliation.

The granting of citizenship rights is a field that is repeatedly the subject of political contention. This discussion aims to explore the relationship between citizenship and human rights from both historical and utopian perspectives, with a view to possibilities for expansion and political solidarity.

The Digital Lecture Series

‘Human Rights as the Last Utopia? Migration and Jewish History’ reflects on the history, present and future of human rights as a political promise that must be defended anew. Against the backdrop of Jewish migration history, five academics, together with the journalist Dinah Riese (taz), examine developments in international refugee protection from various perspectives.

In doing so, they highlight historical achievements that are increasingly being called into question today. Which lessons from the past and which legal or philosophical perspectives can help us transcend the current limits of thinking about migration? And where, in the here and now, can we find approaches towards a more open future?

Miriam Rürup is Director of the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies in Potsdam. From 2012 to 2020, she headed the Institute for the History of German Jews in Hamburg. Other positions she has held include roles at the German Historical Institute in Washington DC, the Department of Medieval and Modern History at the University of Göttingen, the Topography of Terror Foundation in Berlin, the Franz Rosenzweig Centre in Jerusalem and the Simon Dubnow Institute in Leipzig. She is currently conducting research into the United Nations’ approach to statelessness, as well as ideas of universal belonging following both world wars and their repercussions on nation-state politics in West Germany. In 2008, her doctoral thesis *Ehrensache: Jüdische Studentenverbindungen an deutschen Universitäten, 1886–1937* was published by Wallstein. Together with Dörte Bischof, she edited the 2018 volume *Ausgeschlossen: Staatsbürgerschaft, Staatenlosigkeit und Exil*, published by Edition text + kritik.

Dinah Riese heads the domestic affairs desk at the *taz*. Prior to that, she was an editor covering migration and integration there. She has received several awards for her research and reporting on the so-called ban on advertising for abortions, Section 219a of the German Criminal Code (StGB). Her interview with survivors of the attack in Halle was nominated for the Reporters’ Prize. In March 2022, she co-authored the book *Selbstbestimmt. Für reproduktive Rechte* (Self-Determined: For Reproductive Rights) with Gesine Agena and Patricia Hecht.

• The event will take place digitally via livestream.

IN ENGLISH