Free admission. Please RSVP by emailing chk.library@utoronto.ca.
The seminar will be conducted in English.
A Public Talk by: Eef Vermeij
THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL HISTORY (IISH):
The IISH was established in 1935 in Amsterdam to protect endangered papers from destruction as Europe's political situation worsened with the rise of Hitler in Germany. Before World War II, the Institute saved many important collections, including the archives of Marx and Engels, Bakunin's manuscripts, and records from Spanish trade unions and anarchist organizations. Just before the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in 1940, the most valuable archives were moved to Oxford for safety.
After World War II, IISH worked throughout the 1950s to reorganize the archive and library. Following this period, the Institute continued its rescue activities in Europe, becoming an essential repository for the archives and libraries of persecuted people and organizations. As Asia became more prominent on the global stage, both economically and politically, IISH expanded its focus to include an Asian collection. In 1989, IISH helped document the Chinese democratic movement by preserving materials in Amsterdam. Since 2002, the Institute has actively pursued acquisitions in Southeast and East Asia, aiming to establish a permanent office in the region. It has acquired significant collections from South and Southeast Asia, including periodicals and personal collections from Indonesia and Burma.
Speaker Bio:
Eef Vermejj joined IISH in 1993 at the department for contemporary German social movements ('ID-Archiv im IISG'). His abiding interest in Asia has been one of the constants in his life, and in 1998 he was asked to become part-time coordinator of the Asia Department, which after a few years became a fulltime occupation. From late 2002 on he has been the IISH' regional representative for South- and Southeast Asia, from 2011 only for Southeast Asia and from 2017 for the whole of Asia. In addition to working on several unfinished projects and studies, he has a special interest in Vietnam/Cambodia, art/graphic design, visualization of collective memory, independent culture and a variety of other things. In recent years, Eef is also involved in archiving the Anti-ELAB Movement in Hong Kong.