Oxford University is planning a study of the life of a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany and became a world expert in Celtic art.

Researchers at the university have invited local residents to take part in a social history project, piecing together the lives of refugees in Oxford during the Second World War.

The focus will be on Paul Jacobsthal, an archaeologist who fled Germany for Oxford, where he became a senior academic until his death in 1957.

He published a ground-breaking book, Early Celtic Art, in 1944, and left letters revealing his and his wife's experiences as refugees in Oxford.

The project, funded by the Lottery Fund and the Reva and David Logan Foundation, will result in an exhibition in Oxford, due to take place in 2012.