Message posted on 29/11/2018

CFP: Human and non-human migration and mobility

Dear all, Please do apply, share and circulate.

CFP: Human and non-human migration and mobility symposium

Centre for Spatial Environmental and Cultural Politics University of Brighton, 25 March 2019

Migrations and mobility related to conflicts, large-scale urbanization, = climate-change, environmental degradation, and vast economic = inequalities between the global South and North are an urgent issue of = our time=E2=80=94engaging governments, international law and politics, = advocacy and activism. These problems involve both human and non-human = interactions with changing environments, for example, caravans of = migrants walking through Central America to the United States, decline = of wildlife populations, and changing patterns of bird and animal = migration. While many researchers in social, environmental and = biological disciplines are studying changing environments, habitat loss, = population growth, and ethnic and cultural diversity, there is a need = for integrated frameworks and understandings which may, in turn, inform = the development of expert competencies around the multi-facted nature of = such problems.

This interdisciplinary symposium proposes the motile logic of = human/non-human relations, taken both separately and together, as an = interesting vantage-point to investigate the cultural and political = shaping of forms of connectivity and displacement, permanence and = provisionality, transition and transformation. Drawing upon key = developments in natural and social sciences and humanities around = migration, mobilities, and human/non-human relations, the symposium will = bring together perspectives from different disciplines (e.g. = anthropology, geography, biology, sociology, arts, media, communications = and environmental studies) in order to innovate understandings of = contemporary problems around: material and non-material, licit and = illicit, and real and imagined forms of movement and transformation. = These may involve people, communities, landscapes, climates, = technologies, animals, commodities, and the whole range of human and = non-human things. While much existing research focuses on understandings = of identity and society that hinge on continental, regional or national = identifications, human and non-human migration and mobility is proposed = as an arena that can create fresh understandings of shared political and = personal affinity, new kinds of frontiers, imaginaria and cultural = borderlands that go beyond state-ism and territoriality. This turns the = picture towards a perspective where the spatial, cultural and = environmental montage of the person, city, route, trade, technology, = landscape, body or =E2=80=98thing=E2=80=99, are all inextricably = connected. Importantly, we are seeking to develop collaborative = understandings between disciplines of changes involving, for example, = war and refugeehood, the seasonal migration of people, migrant bodies = and identities, communities and wildlife; desertification and the = shifting of the seas inland; climate change induced migration and = displacements of people and communities.

Topics may focus on, but are not limited to:

-movements of migrant and refugee bodies, queer crossings, pilgrimage -climate change induced human mobility, forced migration and = displacement, indigenous communities and climate justice -biodiversity loss and local communities, changes in ecosystems that = affect livelihoods, culture and human/non-human migration

  • political conditions of governance that shape relations of migration = to the environment
  • the movement and commodification of people, animals, drugs, and = everyday (and extraordinary) things -non-human migrants, fast and slow moving goods and technologies, money = and global commodity chains -shifting landscapes, movements of activists and NGO workers, movements = of people in extractive projects, energy in motion, maritime mobility = and cultures of the sea -cyclicality and currents of history in human society, colonial and = postcolonial connections
  • the human geography of human/non-human divides -ways pre-existing land, air and maritime routes are repurposed, = re-imagined, and re-colonised in the movements of things across the = world -Changing urban diversity, cosmopolitanism, social boundaries and = relationships evolved through waves of migration, and the circulation = and distribution of people -the route as a variable of rapid transformation in ways development and = infrastructure development is reshaping dwelling places -the challenge posed to emplaced notions of the urban and = territorialised borders between states by the swift adaptability of = moving people, places and things -Cities as topographies of maritime, watery or amphibious relations -Representations of human mobility in media and policy circuits, = discourses of migration, climate-induced mobility and refugee crises.

We plan to produce a publication based on the event.

If you would like contribute to these discussions, please submit an = abstract and a one-page CV/biodata to Elodie Marandet = (E.Marandet@brighton.ac.uk ) by 31st = December 2018:

If you have any questions please contact: Nichola Khan, Deputy Director, Centre for Spatial Environmental and = Cultural Politics. University of Brighton (N.Khan@brighton.ac.uk = )

Best wishes, Nichola

Dr Nichola Khan=20 Reader in Anthropology and Psychology Deputy Director. Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural = Politics. School of Applied Social Science University of Brighton Falmer Campus, Brighton BN1 9PH

Recent books:

  1. Cityscapes of Violence in Karachi. Publics and Counterpublics, ed. http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/cityscapes-violence-karachi/ =

  2. Mental Disorder: Anthropological Insights.

    http://www.utppublishing.com/Mental-Disorder-Anthropological-Insights.html=

    =20=

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