Linda Erker

For my second book I am studying Austrian scholars and their scientific work and relations in Latin American exile from 1930 to 1970. Exile in this context is understood primarily from the perspective of self-perception, a long-term stay outside the homeland which these scientists and academics had to leave due to banishment, expatriation, persecution by the state or the (democratic) criminal justice system. In my research, I analyze who was able to regain an academic foothold after (forced) migration, and under what conditions. The main focus of my study is on Argentina and Chile. The period 1930 to 1970 includes at least three different cohorts of scholars and their interactions in their destination countries: (1) politically displaced persons from 1933-38 onwards, (2) persecuted Jews who could manage to escape Europe and the Holocaust, (3) National Socialist scientists who fled after the end of World War II. After 1945, they were all simultaneously part of scientific communities far from their homeland. Their work, the transfer of knowledge, their transnational networks, and the transatlantic relations with Austria and Germany are integral part of my research.