Inaugural Lecture Over grenzen. Liminaliteit en de ervaringen van het verzet
Ismee Tames argues for a new focus on the experiences of the members of the resistance movement.
She explores their experiences in a new way by introducing the concept of 'liminality’. Liminality - a concept from anthropology - is concerned with the so-called 'in-between area' or ‘vacuum’: a period in which you cannot fall back on the old, and in which the new has not yet to take shape.
After a war breaks out there is often such a thing as a 'liminal phase'. Tames thus raises the old question 'how does resistance take shape?' and provides a new answer: resistance takes shape in a situation of liminality. What challenges does this situation pose for members of a resistance group? What do they look for? What does this mean for the form their resistance takes?
Since July 2015, Ismee Tames has held a special chair in the history and meaning of resistance against oppression and persecution, endowed by Stichting 1940-1945 at Utrecht University.
The chair has been endowed by Arq Psychotrauma Onderzoek on behalf of Stichting 1940-1945. The aim of the chair is to keep alive the memory of the resistance, persecution, and violence against civilians in the years 1940-1945 and of the way in which the Stichting 1940-1945 has given substance to the 'debt of honour' and special solidarity. This task will be carried out through scholarly research on the one hand, and by strengthening social awareness about persecution and resistance on the other. Ismee Tames is also a director of research at NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
