Displacement, migration, social justice and belonging

Contributors to the workshop include:

Verena Blok, documentary photographer
Ingrid Rollema, visual artist and sculptor
Taghred Elsanhouri, film-maker
Aoileann Ni Mhuruchu (University of Manchester) lecturer in International Politics
Mariangela Palladino (University of Keele) lecturer in Postcolonial Studies

Workshop theme

The global movement of people and the diverse ways in which states and communities react to these mobilities have brought issues around belonging and social justice to the forefront of political and academic debates.

During times of rapid social change, artistic expressions have historically been one of the important ways in which such changes are reflected upon, initiated and commented on. Now, technologies exist which make artworks mobile in unprecedented ways; they can be shared across the world almost instantly.

These developments call for methodological innovation in order to expand and deepen our understanding of migration displacement, social justice and belonging, in the context of global displacement and migration. In response, refugee and migration studies, development studies and other disciplines are experimenting with new methods, processes and approaches, many of which have their origins in the arts.

The integration of creative practices and products into these traditionally social scientific investigations is an exciting time for knowledge production in these disciplines. These innovations bring with them numerous epistemological and ethical questions.

Format

This workshop will bring together researchers who work on themes of migration, displacement, social justice and belonging, and/or who work with creative approaches together with artists who explore these themes using different materials. Together, we will share our experiences of the possibilities and challenges of reflecting on these themes and using these methods.

The questions we will seek to answer include:

• What kinds of knowledge are produced by both making and reading artworks?
• How is that knowledge is produced, and who by?
• How knowledge production in the different fields of creative arts and social sciences is compatible or conflicting?
• What the two fields can learn from each other?
• How is the power to produce knowledge shared between the makers and the readers/analysts of art? How should this relationship work?
• What is the relationship between sense and the sensory?
• What is the relationship between emotion and artistic expression?

We will ask this in a general sense but also consider these questions in relation to migration, displacement, social justice and ‘belonging’ in the context of globalization and migration.

• What can we know about experiences of migration and displacement and quests for social justice and belonging from engaging with these methods, artefacts and approaches which we would not from using more traditional social scientific methods?
• Is there something about the study of social justice and belonging in migratory contexts, in particular, which calls for such methods, if so why is that the case?
• How can we work collaboratively with each other to gain a deeper understanding of knowledge production, of understanding the issues around social justice, migration and belonging?
• How can such knowledge production open up less hierarchical, more open and inclusive ways of knowing?

Interested in attending the workshop?

This is an invitation only event. You can express your interest in attending by sending an email to to Katerzina Grabska at grabska@iss.nl and Cathy Wilcock at wilcock@iss.nl before 20 January.