Scott Soo

Dr. Scott Soo is an Associate Professor in Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Southampton, where he teaches across all years of BA and MA programmes covering French and European history and society. He is affiliated with the Centre for Transnational Studies, the Parkes Institute, and the Southampton Centre for Medical and Health Humanities.

His academic background includes:

• Studies in French and Spanish
• DPhil in History from the University of Sussex
• Three years at the Université de Toulouse 1 Sciences Sociales

Scott Soo's research focuses on the modern history of conflict, migration and commemoration in France and Europe, with forced displacement and its legacies central to his work. His DPhil traced Spanish Civil War refugees in France, resulting in the monograph 'The routes to exile: France and the Spanish Civil War refugees, 1939-2009' (Manchester University Press, 2013). He examines how different but interconnected histories are reflected through memorial practices at former sites of trauma, particularly focusing on the Gurs Camp in southern France. His research spans the mass 1939 exodus across the Pyrenees, French internment camps during WWII, work and Resistance activities, and contemporary commemorative legacies.

His publication trajectory shows consistent focus on transnational memory and refugee experiences, with recent work analyzing how Spanish republicans, International Brigades members, and German-Jewish deportees in France are represented in commemorative ceremonies. This has involved collaboration with award-winning photographer/director Tom Price on visual legacies of internment at Gurs Camp. His scholarship demonstrates evolving engagement with memorialization practices, moving from historical analysis of refugee experiences to contemporary commemorative dynamics.

Scott Soo serves on the Editorial Board of 'Diasporas. Circulations, migrations, histoire' and the Academic Board of the Centre d'Archives et d'Etudes sur les Migrations Ibériques at Université de Toulouse. Previously, he served on the Academic Advisory Board of 'Migrance' journal and the Executive Committee of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France. As a postgraduate, he co-founded the University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History.

He is an experienced PhD supervisor, currently advising Elinor Mary Briginshaw in Modern Languages, and welcomes inquiries from students interested in French culture, history, politics, society, or Spanish Civil War legacies. His research has been supported through academic collaborations including the 'Legacies for the Twenty-First Century' project examining landscape, remembrance, and visualization of the former Gurs internment camp.

Scott Soo is actively involved in multiple research communities, contributing to interdisciplinary dialogue between history, migration studies, and memory studies through his institutional affiliations and editorial work.