Tara Zahra, Mosse Lecture 02: Single Women @georgelmosseprogram
Tara Zahra, Mosse Lecture 02: Single Women  @georgelmosseprogram
Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Professor Tara Zahra

2019 George L. Mosse Lectures
The Gallery of Vanished Husbands, Picture Brides, and Lost Children: How Migration Made the Modern Family

Lecture 2: Single Women

18 September 2019
Chair: Professor Kathryn Ciancia

15:30 CST
Pyle Center, Vandeberg Auditorium, Madison

Sponsored by:
George L. Mosse Program in History
UW-Madison Department of History
UW-Madison Center for German and European Studies

Lecture series abstract:
We have become accustomed to thinking of migration stories as family stories. At least since the beginning of the era of mass migration, people have moved long distances to make families, escape families, or improve the lives of their families. Families – and the gender roles underpinning them – have also been at the heart of policymakers' and politicians’ efforts to regulate and restrict migration. From the mass transatlantic migration of the turn of the twentieth century, to the refugee movements of the two World Wars, to the separation of families on the US southern border in 2018, migration policies have defined ideals of family and gender. On both sides of the Atlantic, meanwhile, mass migration was often perceived to be a direct cause of the dissolution of traditional families and gender roles. Were alarmists right to be worried? Looking at three examples – runaways, single women, and separated families – this lecture series will explore the role of mass migration in making & breaking families and transforming gender roles in the twentieth century.


Tara Zahra is Homer J. Livingston Professor of History at the University of Chicago. She is most recently the author of The Great Departure: Mass Migration and the Making of the ‘Free World’ (Norton, 2016) and, with Leora Auslander, Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement (Cornell, 2018). Her previous books include The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe’s Families after World War II (Harvard University Press, 2011) and Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands (Cornell, 2008). She is a 2014 Macarthur Fellow and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her current projects include a co-authored history of World War I in the Habsburg Empire (with Pieter Judson), and a history of deglobalization in interwar Europe.
Tara Zahra, Mosse Lecture 02: Single WomenMoshe Sluhovsky, Panel VI: Gender, Sexuality, and Mass Politics, IntroductionJeremy Best, Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of EmpireKathryn L. Brackney, Surreal Geographies: A New History of Holocaust ConsciousnessAndreas Huyssen, “Prophets of Deceit Redivivus”Robert Corban, New Order or World Order? New Perspectives on the History of Fascist ItalyOfer Ashkenazi, Rebekka Grossmann, Shira Miron, Sarah Wobick-Segev, Still LivesAlessandra Tarquini, Anson Rabinbach, Olivier Forlin, Discussion: Fascism and Totalitarianism2020.08.14 - Social Justice Remade? The Decline of the European Welfare State, 1973-2009Nick Lehane, “Breathing Life: The Mysterious Power of Puppetry”Tara Zahra, Mosse Lecture 01: RunawaysHans Strauch, Rebuilding a Family Name and Place in Berlin
George L. Mosse Program in History |

Tara Zahra, Mosse Lecture 02: Single Women

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