Monday 20 July 2020

20 July 2020 - Publication Announcement: Special Issue of History of Intellectual Culture


Publication Announcement: Special Issue of History of Intellectual Culture Focusing on Central European Émigré Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and Cognitive Scientists



This update is part of the regular U of C Émigré Project Updates: (http://emigreucalgary.blogspot.ca/2020/)

            Earlier this month, the latest issue of the open-access journal History of Intellectual Culture (HIC) was released online (editor-in-chief: Dr. Paul J. Stortz, University of Calgary). HIC, which focuses on the historical and cultural context behind the dissemination of scientific ideas throughout history via an interdisciplinary lens, has migrated to a new OJS platform via Drupal following changes to the University of Calgary website. This special issue focuses on the topic of the forced emigration of German-speaking psychiatrists, psychologists, and cognitive scientists from Central Europe resulting from the rise of Nazism. The time period of this special issue ranges from the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany in 1933, up to the dissolution of the communist Eastern Bloc in 1989. Furthermore, this issue covers a wide range of topics, including individual biographies of select German-speaking émigrés (e.g. From German Youth to British Soldier to Canadian Psychologist: The Journey of German Émigré Dr. Hugh Lytton [1921-2002] by Erna Kurbegović) and broader investigations on how this large-scale emigration influenced the development of fields such as cognitive science, as explored in Vincent von Hoeckendorf’s “On the Influence of German-Speaking Émigrés on the Emergence of Cognitive Science as a New Interdisciplinary Field”. As a result, this new issue provides new insights from multiple disciplines and perspectives regarding the impact of this understudied period of academic history. As Dr. Frank W. Stahnisch writes in his Introduction to the issue, “Altogether, this special issue of History of Intellectual Culture clearly shows that the long-term migration of scientists and physicians affected both the migrants themselves and their receiving environments.” Indeed, the breadth of this issue adds significantly to the growing body of literature on the forced migration of German-speaking psychologists, cognitive scientists, and related academics.

The full issue can be read on the HIC website via the following link:

Tuesday 16 June 2020

16 June 2020-Project Update: Research on Dr. Rudolf Altschul (1901-1963) Presented at HBI Research Day


Emigre Neuroscientist’s Biography Presented at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) Research Day (May 28, 2020)


This update is part of the regular U of C Émigré Project Updates: (http://emigreucalgary.blogspot.ca/2020/)

          Last month, on May 28, 2020, Anzo Nguyen presented a research poster in collaboration with Dr. Frank W. Stahnisch at the annual Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) Research Day, which took place as a half-day online symposium due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Research Day, which highlighted the work being done by HBI researchers and trainees, included a virtual gallery of poster presentations. This poster, titled “From Prague to the Prairies: Dr. Rudolf Altschul (1901-1963), a Refugee Neuroscientist’s Plight”, provided a biographical account of one German-speaking neuroscientist who eventually settled in the Canadian Prairies, namely Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. As described in the previous blog article, Dr. Altschul fled his native Czechoslovakia in 1939 due to the Nazi German annexation of Bohemia, and after a cumbersome flight found refuge and settled at the University of Saskatchewan to take up a position in the Department of Anatomy. This poster, while chronicling Dr. Altschul’s resettlement and academic career in the neurosciences in Canada, contextualizes his story in the larger exodus of Jewish and oppositional academics from Central Europe in the 1930s. In addition, a parallel is drawn to the current refugee crisis in the Middle East, where a similar mass emigration of at-risk academics is occurring. The poster was designed primarily with these overarching contextual themes in mind.

The link to view the poster can be found below:


Copyright note: the photographs in this poster were used, and are now shared, with the express written consent and courtesy of the University of Saskatchewan Archives and Special Collections from 10 June, 2020. Permission to reproduce any images must, however, be addressed to them: https://library.usask.ca/archives/contact-us/index.php