The book I am presently writing, "Lost Properties of the Twentieth Century", examines how stories of property in and beyond fiction offer a portal into some of the most contested issues in modern times: why, for instance, we come to feel possessive over intangibles—nations, history, memory—that, strictly speaking, we cannot own. Why do we care to own things in the first place and how do we come to value and safeguard our property. The study begins with more conventional notions of property (the home or estate) and branches out into concepts that function like property but that, strictly speaking, cannot be owned: memory, citizenship, and identity (specifically traced through the problem of identity theft). A final chapter considers property restitution as a vehicle for justice (as in post-Holocaust efforts to return stolen property to its original owners).
 
I am looking for a research partner to undertake primary research in a range of subjects, primarily in the following areas:
 
• Legal cases on property disputes in the twentieth century
• Primary and secondary source material on cultural property (general treatments on the subject and more specific work on the Elgin Marbles)
• Materials related to the Dreyfus Affair (and particularly Zola’s famous letter, “J’accuse”)
• Literary criticism on particular novelists (E.M. Forster, Ford Madox Ford, Proust)
• Materials on identity theft (history, policy, contemporary debates)
• Source material related to theories of citizenship
• Materials related to Nazi confiscation of Jewish property
• Materials related to writings of individuals deprived of property under the Third Reich: Marc Bloch, Victor Klemperer, Erich Auerbach
 
The research partner should have a reasonable handle on how to conduct research in Harvard’s libraries (though we will, of course, discuss particulars and negotiate challenges together), trace source materials, and develop a helpful bibliography on the topics above. The student will also be asked to engage critically with the material she or he finds, and to present observations and insights when we meet. In the process, other topics may present themselves, and the student may be asked to investigate those as well.
 
The student who serves as a research partner on this project will undoubtedly change its overall shape, both by identifying relevant source materials and by sharing ideas that she or he develops through her or his reading. Since we will be discussing the findings together and brainstorming about possible new directions that open up through the research, I anticipate that the student’s work will leave an indelible mark on the project, both materially and intellectually.