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Clamouring For Legal Protection: What the Great Books Teach Us About People Fleeing From Persecution
Author Talk with Robert F. Barsky, writer of Clamouring For Legal Protection: What the Great Books Teach Us About People Fleeing From Persecution
Friday, December 3rd 5:30PM
**Books will be for sale onsite, with all proceeds going to the Human Rights Watch: Refugee Division**
530pm Doors open. Snacks, Coffee & Tea by Refuge Coffee Co., Wine & Bubbly
6pm Author Talk and Q&A
7pm Book Sales & Signing
7:30pm Event Ends
About the Book: In this novel approach to law and literature, Robert Barsky delves into the canon of so-called Great Books, and discovers that many beloved characters therein encounter obstacles similar to those faced by contemporary refugees and undocumented persons.
The struggles of Odysseus, Moses, Aeneas, Dante, Satan, Dracula and Alice in Wonderland, among many others, provide surprising insights into current discussions about those who have left untenable situations in their home countries in search of legal protection.
Law students, lawyers, social scientists, literary scholars and general readers who are interested in learning about international refugee law and immigration regulations in home and host countries will find herein a plethora of details about border crossings, including those undertaken to flee pandemics, civil unrest, racism, intolerance, war, forced marriage, or limited opportunities in their home countries.
Barsky’s talk will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A and audience discussion. Books will be for sale onsite, with all proceeds going to the Human Rights Watch: Refugee Division. Wine & snacks will be provided.
About the Author: Robert Barsky’s multidisciplinary research combines social justice, human rights, border and refugee studies with literary and artistic insights into the plight of vulnerable migrants. He has published widely, and his books on undocumented migrants, refugees and the milieus of Noam Chomsky and Zellig Harris have been translated into 14 languages. He has also been actively involved in several national and international research projects, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the governments of Canada, Québec, Belgium, France, and the Dutch Royal Academy.With support from his Canada Research Chair on Law, Narrative and Border Crossing, Barsky is building on the work has done for the past 15 years on a border-crossing journal called AmeriQuests: Narrative, Law and Society, which he started as the Canadian Bicentennial Visiting Professor at Yale. The new an open-access e-journal called Contours is hosted in collaboration with MIT’s Knowledge Futures Goup, on MIT’s Media Lab platform. It focuses on artistic representations of border-crossing through a combined exhibition space and academic journal.