'Utopia and Migration: Renewing the Imagination of Borders in the 21st c.' 22-24 April 2020
This international and multidisciplinary conference aims to contribute to the analysis of the borders imagination in the context of international migrations in the 21st century. It will raise the more specific question of how contemporary literature deals with the current issues related to borders from the perspective of utopia. What are these other ways that utopia traces to denounce and overcome discursive, media and state strategies aimed at making invisible, spoiling or stigmatising migrants, and thus strengthening borders? What alternatives to current border experiences can be explored through fiction? In what forms do they take place in the literary text? Which borders are targeted, those of the dream continent or the left one? How do these imaginative practices shed light on, or challenge, the relationship of contemporary societies to human mobility, to hospitality? The Conference invites the literary scientific field to a discussion with the Social Sciences in order to adequately address an issue whose study can contribute to rethinking the definitions of utopia, and in particular utopia as a literary genre, and to enriching migration studies.
This will also include three special events:
- Screening of 'The Valley' in the presence of film director Nuno Escudeiro on Thursday 22 April, 6pm
- Talk by the writer Louis-Philippe Dalembert on Friday 23 April, 2.15pm
- Public Lecture by Achille Mbembe on Friday 23 April, 5.30pm
A more detailed description is available on Fabula: https://www.fabula.org/actualites/utopie-et-migration-renouveler-l-imaginaire-des-frontieres-au-xxie-siecle-oxford_92596.php
Booking will be required for this event.
More information will be available shortly on this page.
