The Dissertation Workshop is a graduate educational seminar open to graduate students and their advisors. CES invites graduates students who are interested in attending this workshop or in presenting their research to contact Nikolas Weyland, CES Dissertation Workshop Coordinator.
Rustam Khan is a graduate student at MIT’s doctoral program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS). His research interests are largely in the fields of built environments, STS (History, Science, Technology and Society), and socialism-capitalism in the former Soviet Union and its frontier zones across Eurasia.
It is well-known that migrant labor has been crucial to Europe’s postwar reconstruction. Thousands of workers from Spain, Italy, North Africa, as well as the former Yugoslavia and Turkey were recruited through bilateral “exchange” programs to work in coal mining, construction industries, and domestic work. However, it is less well-known that by the 1970s, the “oil crises” also spawned intense public debates in relation to the “migrant question/crisis.” These were often articulated through racialized/racist concepts of citizenship and fear-mongering campaigns of 'Otherness'.
In this work-in-progress, Khan juxtaposes the migrant/energy crises to
show how Europe’s relationship to (de)colonization, “multiculturalism,” and
“integration” started to play out in Belgium during the 1970s. He starts from
below by looking at how grassroots community initiatives arose from alliances
between labor unions, student movements, and migrant activists. Fighting for
political inclusivity and against racist exclusion merged with and shaped
narratives of human rights that were seen as instrumental in the making of
European identity.
