Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Transnational Italy. National Identity and the World Atlas - University of reading 13-14 July 2012


Another interesting upcoming conference especially for those of you interested in Italian Studies.
The conference called Translational Italy. National Identity and the World Atlas is the Society for Italian Studies 2012 Interim Conference and is organized by the Italian Department of the University of Reading. There's a beautifully made website very informative and detailed.
The conference will take place on the 13th and 14th of July 2012.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Displacement, Resistance, Representation - Queen Mary University of London 28-29 June 2012

 

Please join us at the conference Displacement, Resistance and Representation organized by the Centre for the Study of Migration (Queen Mary University of London). I'll be there presenting a paper on "Bodies of Lampedusa. Migration, Law and the Image".
All details (including the programme) of the conference can be found here.There is also a dedicated facebook page!

This is the abstract of my paper:

Lampedusa, a tiny island that belongs politically to Italy and geographically to Africa, is today the most controversial place within the Mediterranean. It lives off tourism for nearly eight months a year but it is forced to deal almost daily with what is commonly perceived, in public opinion, as an ‘invasion of Europe’ by migrants from the African continent. This paper aims at analysing on the one hand, the legal, political and mass-media discourses, with their related construction of normative practices, that influence the public imagery of the ‘others’; and on the other, the representation of these subjects in visual discourses, from mass media to cinema and visual art.
For a variety of reasons that this paper intends to explore, migrants are most commonly considered and represented as ‘bodies without words’ (Agamben 2005). The paper will show how the aesthetics of the migrant body can lend a ‘voice’ to alternative ways in which we may imagine and reconsider the conditions under which contemporary migration challenges Italian and European politics, ethics and aesthetics. In particular, the focus of the paper will be the representation of migrant bodies of Lampedusa under three specific forms: compressed bodies in containers and boats, floating or drowned corpses and clandestine bodies within Italy and Europe.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

CRONEM Annual Conference 26-27 June 2012

Just a reminder about this upcoming conference organied by the Centre for the Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism (University of Surrey) in collaboration with the UCL Migration Research Unit. The topic of this year conference is The Future of Multiculturalism: Structures, Integration Policies and Practices. 
Find all details here.

Amnesty International Human Rights Camp in Lampedusa (14-21 July 2012)



This is an exciting news. The first Amnesty International Human Rights Camp will take place 14-21 July in Lampedusa. You can find all details of this initiave here.