Date/Time
Date(s) - 11/15/2019
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Location
Education in Zion Auditorium
Category(ies)
Janet Ward, Vice President and President-Elect of the German Studies Association, Professor of History and the inaugural Faculty Director of the Humanities Forum at the University of Oklahoma, will present for the Humanities Center’s weekly event on Friday, November 15th. The presentation will be held in room 4188 JFSB at 12:00 PM.
Title: “Mother of Exiles”: The Statue of Liberty and the Legacy of the Holocaust
Emma Lazarus’ poem about the Statue of Liberty as the “Mother of Exiles” has come to be associated with the statue’s purpose – many might say, with this country’s purpose. The poem gets to the heart of the matter: who do we let live among us? Who gets asylum, and who is barred, exiled, or left to a far worse fate? The shoring up of our democracy depends on the power of our memory, and on the purposefulness of our recognition of the humanity and dignity of the dispossessed and “tempest-tost.” This presentation explores how – despite the failure of US immigration policy to adequately respond to asylum-seekers attempting to escape Nazism — the Statue of Liberty’s torch became known as an icon of refuge. How can we aspire toward deeds and monuments that are progressive and humane?
Lunch will be served.
