Saturday, September 20, 2014

Lampedusa: Migratory Space, Memory and Aesthetics_A UCL one-day Symposium 23 October 2014 3-6pm.

Dear all,
It's my pleasure to share with you the details of a one-day symposium I am organizing at UCL on the 23th of October 2014. The event is sposored by the UCL School of European Languages, Culture and Society and by the UCL Italian Department.

Lampedusa: Migratory Space, Memory and Aesthetics
The spatial dimension of Lampedusa and the Mediterranean has never been of greater political relevance than it is today. While boat migrants and refugees approaching Lampedusa are de-individualised by the media, detained by law enforcement, or find their anonymous resting place in the waters of the Mediterranean, recent documentaries, festivals, video-art and heritage sites - on and beyond the island - have attempted, in different ways, to put a face on the migrant and review the Mediterranean passage.
This one-day conference aims to facilitate a crucial conversation about the aesthetic potential of the contemporary nomadic condition of migrants as a way to resist imperial and Eurocentric subjugation of these subjects. This conversation will consider various perspectives on the issue of migration in Lampedusa, from the geographical discourse around space to the conservation of memory and the legacy of migration in aesthetic forms.

Speakers include: Sandro Triulzi (Director of the Migrant Memories Archive): Claire Dwyer (UCL Geography); Ilaria Vecchi (film-maker and activist) and Valentina Zagaria (writer and director).


For full programme see below. For further details pease contact me: f.mazzara@ucl.ac.uk

:::All Welcome:::






Lampedusa: Migratory Space, Memory and Aestheics
23 October 2014
UCL Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street
London , WC1N 1PF, room 118

3.pm -3.15pm
Welcome and Introduction
Federica Mazzara (UCL SELCS)

3.15pm - 3.45pm
Alessandro Triulzi (Director of Migrant Memories Archive)
Working with migrants in Italy: sharing thoughts and problems

3.45pm -4.15pm
Claire Dwyer (UCL Geography)
Space, migration and memory

4.15pm – 4.30pm
break

4.30pm – 5.00pm
Ilaria Vecchi (film-maker and activist)
The collective Askavusa: The museum of migration and the Lampedusa in festival

5.00pm – 5.30pm
Valentina Zagaria (writer and director)
Performing Lampedusa in ‘Miraculi’

5.30pm – 6.00pm
Round Table with all the speakers
Chair: Federica Mazzara (UCL SELCS)



Other useful links:
Askavusa
Porto M (Museo delle migrazioni a Lampedusa  |  Museum of Migration in Lampedusa)


Io sto con la sposa | On the Bride's Side


Io sto con la sposa (On The Bride's Side), a documentary by Gabriele del Grande,  Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry and Antonio Augugliaro, telling how a group of Syrian refugees staged a fake wedding to cross Europe safely and reach Sweden, is out in Italian cinema from the 9th of October, after an amazing success at the Biennale in Venice!
Find out more about the film and the crowdfunding project behind it here
Read also:
Facebook page
Digicult 
France24
 

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Conference: ‘Boat Refugees’ and Migrants at Sea: A Comprehensive Approach Integrating Maritime Security with Human Rights 23-24 June 2014

The Refugee Law Initiative, University of London, and the Department of Law at Queen Mary University of London, with the financial support of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and the Human Rights Consortium (HRC) at the School of Advanced Study, will hold a conference on "'Boat Refugees' and Migrants at Sea: A Comprehensive Approach - Integrating Maritime Security with Human Rights," June 23-24, 2014, at Senate House, London. Registration is now open. The program is here. Here's the idea:



This conference aims to comprehensively address the contemporary phenomenon of ‘boat migration’ with a holistic approach. We will consider its multiple facets, combining knowledge from several disciplines and regions of the world, with a view to making a decisive contribution to our understanding of current trends, against the background of the fragmentary responses adopted and innumerable tragedies occurred thus far.
The final goal is to unpack the tension between security concerns and human rights in this context. Therefore, our joint reflections will build on recent developments in law and case law regarding the applicability of human rights at sea and take account of past and present policy experiences to help placing on-going discussions within a comprehensive framework. The objective is to trigger an inter-regional and multidisciplinary dialogue with contributions from Law of the Sea, maritime security, migration and refugee studies, and human rights, to address the position of ‘migrants at sea’ from an integrated perspective, bridging current gaps in knowledge and policy responses, ranging from how to conceptually categorise ‘boat migrants’, to how to respond to differing needs and entitlements and how to reconcile them with State obligations and security constraints.
The conference is projected following a logical flow, which starts with the joint identification of the subject matter, moving on to the analysis of core issue-areas and policy initiatives adopted in the EU and beyond, and closing with the identification of outstanding problems, pointing the way ahead in which research should move to contribute to the development of sustainable policy, mindful of both State interests and the rights of refugees and migrants. Attention will be drawn to the instruments, actors and institutions involved to yield insights on how migration by sea has been and should be governed. To this end, each session will regroup panelists from a variety of backgrounds, who will be asked to deal with a common question.