Emma Lazarus’s poem about the Statue of Liberty as the “Mother of Exiles” has come to be associated with the statue’s purpose – many might say, with this country's purpose. This talk explores how – despite the failure of US immigration policy to adequately respond to asylum-seekers attempting to escape Nazism -- the Statue of Liberty’s torch became known as an icon of refuge. Janet Ward, Brammer Presidential Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma, is the inaugural Faculty Director of the OU Arts & Humanities Forum, and the Vice President and President-Elect of the German Studies Association. Originally from the south of England, she majored in French and German at the University of London where she received a First Class Combined Honors BA degree. After working in the City of London and then emigrating to the U.S., Janet received her MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD in German Studies from the University of Virginia. Author and coeditor of six books and many articles, Janet has received grants and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright Program, the German Academic Exchange Service, the Getty Research Institute, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Summer Institute for Israel Studies, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx