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Northwestern history professor to deliver Povolny Lecture on Tuesday

Lauren Stokes, assistant professor of history at Northwestern University, will discuss migration and race in Germany on Tuesday, March 8 as part of the Povolny Lecture Series in International Studies. The address, “Harlem in Germany: Race, Migration, and the American Analogy in the Federal Republic of Germany,” is open in person to the Lawrence community at 4:30 p.m. in Room 201 of Main Hall.

Named in honor of the late Mojmir Povolny, a long-time Lawrence government professor, the lecture series promotes interest and discussion on issues of moral significance and ethical dimensions.

Stokes is a historian of modern Germany, with a particular focus on migration and race in German history. Their book, Fear of the Family: Guest Workers and Family Migration in the Federal Republic of Germany, was released in February. It provides a history of “family reunification,” the predominant pathway for legal migration to Germany since 1973, and offers interpretations of debates about race and migration in postwar Germany.

The lecture will discuss a deeper history of European migration policy with a focus on how West Germany’s approach to migrants and refugees was shaped by U.S. social science research on race, including policy makers invoking ‘Harlem’ as a racialized space used to formulate urban housing policy for Turkish migrants in Germany during the 1970s, and the impact of U.S. social science on German policies relating to child migration in the 1980s.