Posted on behalf of Catherine Nolan Hanlon and Krista House. Please direct
all inquiries to them (addresses included below).
*** CALL FOR PAPERS ***
Please excuse cross-postings
Association of American Geographers
AAG Annual Meeting 2001, New York City
Tuesday, February 27- Saturday, March 2
TITLE: TRANSNATIONALISM, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, AND NEW REFUGEE SPACES
ORGANIZERS:
Catherine NOLIN HANLON, Department of Geography, Queen's University,
Kingston, ON, CANADA
and
Krista HOUSE, Population and Forced Migration, The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, New York City, NY, USA
In the past decade, the emerging field of Transnational Studies has
presented "transnationalism" as a useful conceptual tool to deal with the
current period of globalization characterized by what Appadurai (1996
"Modernity at Large") identifies as the twin forces of mass migration and
electronic mediation. Key to most transnational studies is the desire to
bring a dialectical approach to the study of the dynamics of globalization
and bring together the study of "structure, cultural process, and human
agency" (Basch et. al. 1994). Through such a prism, the agency of people
and their multiple roles are given primacy as a way to access the
complexity of transformation and population dynamics.
In this session, we are particularly concerned with the possibilities
offered by this "optic" for dealing with refugee issues. We would like to
gather together a group of papers and presentations that examine the
renegotiations of refugee space in which new parameters are created for
meaningful place making. Additionally, we encourage papers that analyse
emerging transnational refugee processes and patterns.
As mobility is identified as a key feature of transnationalism, it must be
recognized that the agency and life choices of the twenty million refugees
world-wide are often quite different than those of immigrants. As with all
people on the move, refugees undoubtedly maintain a "double
consciousness" but the transnational social fields that they forge and
maintain are decidedly different than labour migrants, international
entrepreneurs, and transnational political activists. For refugees, bodily
mobility might be short-lived, uni-directional, and violence-ridden. They
may move quickly and then remain stuck "out of place" for much longer than
expected. As with other transnationals, refugee processes are not a new
phenomena but by bringing in a newer optic, researchers may get at the
layered, complex experience in ways not possible with standard research
practices. Transnationalism and new refugee spaces force us as researchers
to reconceptualize fundamentally the politics of community, identity,
culture, and so forth.
Reconfigured communities, renegotiated places, and newly imagined
identities continue to emerge from the political violence in various "hot
spots" around the globe and subsequent refugee flight and
migration. Perceptions of identity and citizenship change over space and
time for those who negotiate their passage across borders as well as for
their families who renegotiate these concepts within the home
country. What will this mean for the future of newly emerging and already
established communities in both countries? As well, the foreign
remittances and transnational linkages that have been cultivated and
maintained throughout years of political violence, may be increasingly
depended upon for economic, social, and cultural sustainability in the
years of social reconstruction.
Suggestions of possible themes might include:
Transnationalism as an outcome of political violence and forced migration
Refugee return and remittance landscapes
Transformation of refugee flows to economic survival migration
Transnational refugee social spaces and gender identities
Refugee return and identity transformation
Transnational solidarity
Transnationalism and refugee youth culture
Citizenship and belonging
Formation and maintenance of transnational exile communities
Political and economic transformation of sending communities
Transnational household strategies
New visions of transnationalism
Spatialization of transnational identities
We are in the process of seeking specialty group sponsorship.
Submission:
Deadline: Please send materials to us by Monday, August 21, 2000
Abstracts may be emailed and later faxed to us. For more information or to
submit your abstract, please contact one of the organizers below:
Catherine NOLIN HANLON
Department of Geography,
Queen's University
Kingston, ON K7L 3N6
*Summer 2000, please contact in Halifax, NS at:
Phone: (902) 494-6025
FAX: (902) 494-6849
Email: [log in to unmask]
Or
Krista HOUSE
Population and Forced Migration,
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
140 East 62nd Street,
New York, NY 10021
Phone: (212) 838-8400
FAX: (212) 223-2778
Email: [log in to unmask]
Dr. Emily Gilbert
Department of Geography
Queen's University
Mackintosh-Corry Hall
Kingston, Ontario
Canada K7L 3N6
Tel. (613) 533 6000 ex. 74086
Fax. (613) 533 6122
Email: [log in to unmask]
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