CARA Archive at UEL

This is a brief introductory message to draw youe attention to the important work being underataken by CARA, the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics and to provide information in regard to the availability of their Archive.

CARA was originaly founded in 1933 as the Academic Assistance Council in order to help support academics who facing persecution within their home country.  In light of the international situation at the time, in 1936 the Academic Assistance Council re-formed itself as the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL) and continued to play a hugely important role supporting refugee academics and defending academic freedom.  Further details on the history of CARA can be found on their website here – http://www.academic-refugees.org/history.asp – and also in the launch of a recent book to celebrate 75 years of the organisation entitled “The Refuge and the Fortress: Britain and the flight from Tyranny” By Jeremy Seabrook.  Please contact CARA if you would like to purchase this book and copies are available for consultation here at the Refugee Archive.

We are pleased to say that we are currently working with CARA to make their Archive of modern records available.  The Archive has now arrived at UEL and the next stage is for us to accession and catalogue the material and once this is complete, then decisions can be made in regard to how best to enable access to the collection.  Obviously these decisions will need to made with due consideration to the Data Protection Acr and with full consultation with CARA.

In the meantime, I would also like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the CARA Archive collection which is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.  This collection covers the dates between 1933 and 1987.  Further information can be found both on the CARA website and by following this link – http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/online.htm – to the Bodeian Library website.  To access the Archive, you will first need to contact the CARA office at: info.cara@lsbu.ac.uk or call 020 7021 0880.

Further updates to this posting will be available in due course.