The concept of who qualifies as a refugee according to international law will be explored in the lecture “Institutionalizing Exclusion? Refugees, Human Rights, and the End of Empire,” at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday in the Alumni Center Founders Room.
The lecture by Pamela Ballinger, professor of history, LSA, is her Inaugural Lecture as Fred Cuny Professor of the History of Human Rights. Asking who qualifies as a refugee according to international law, Ballinger says that after World War II, debates over this question played a key role in shaping the modern human rights system.
Focusing on the case of Italian nationals repatriated from Italy’s former colonies after fascism’s defeat, Ballinger demonstrates how the international refugee regime was constructed as much through the exclusions of large groups of displaced persons from eligibility as through inclusions. In doing so, she challenges histories that depict the “rise” of human rights as a story of ever-greater inclusion, making the point that human rights protections have been given to some and not others.
