Dear colleagues,
I’d like to point you to an upcoming conference in New York, held at Columbia University:
Migration and Mobility in a Digital Age: Paradoxes of Connectivity and Belonging Conference
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - Wednesday, April 11, 2018
The Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room
For more information, see http://heymancenter.org/events/migration-in-a-digital-age-paradoxes-of-connectivity-and-belonging/
The image of Syrian refugees with a smartphone shooting ‘selfies’ upon reaching dry land has captured the international imagination (Chouliaraki, 2017; Kunstman, 2017; Risam, forthcoming 2018). It suggests an image of the ‘connected migrant’ (Diminescu, 2008), which is shaped by a profound ambivalence: migrants are expected to be people fleeing from war, violence, and poverty; they are not expected to be ‘digital natives’, equipped with technologies to navigate their difficult journeys. While smartphones are accessible, affordable, and easy to use, in the realm of the public imaginary the image of the disenfranchised and disconnected migrant remains that of the ‘have nots’, and therefore subject to ‘high tech orientalism’ (Chun, 2006, p. 73). This posits the figuration of the migrant as outside the realm of development and modern forms of communication, disenfranchised and vulnerable in order to be worthy of international aid and pity (Boltanski, 20000; Ticktin, 2008). And yet smartphones are ubiquitous, and migrants have been early adopters and heavy users of technologies for the simple reason that these technologies are ingrained in their daily practices and everyday lives, which often involve perilous crossings but also the need to keep in touch with the home front and their diasporic communities. The promise of connectivity that is guaranteed even under duress becomes fraught with the profound disconnection brought about by the disciplining gaze of Western media and publics.
It is, therefore, crucial to focus on the specific way in which digital technologies bridge or magnify the gap in migration between geographical distance and digital proximity. How are affect, intimacy, and belonging negotiated online in the face of forced migration and expulsions (Sassen, 2012) but also of circular migration, expatriation, and transnational movements?
This conference aims to cover a broad range of conflict-related issues on migration in a digital age. Using the latest insights from a range of interdisciplinary fields, it will explore theories of displacement such as diaspora, cosmopolitanism, and nomadism, and the transformations brought about by the digital revolution, through the analysis of virtual communities, social media platforms, and digital activism. It will also focus on media production and the regulation of information on forced migrants in a ‘post-truth’ era: fake news; the humanitarianism-securitization nexus, migration management, social and political conflicts related to migrant and diaspora communities, radicalization and online counter-terrorism, hate speech and racism, but also solidarities, activism, and protest.
For more info e-mail Sandra Ponzanesi: [log in to unmask]
Program:
DAY 1
Tuesday, April 10, Heyman Center, Common Room
9.00-9.30 Coffee
9.30-10.00 Opening
Sarah Cole (Dean of Arts and Sciences, Division of Humanities)
Introduction
Sandra Ponzanesi (Utrecht University/Columbia University)
10.00-11.30
Panel I
Digital Cartographies ‘in’ Time
Moderator: Radhika Gajjala (Bowling Green State University)
Alex Gil (Columbia University)
“In The Same Boats": Moving Maps and Cartographies of Intersections
Roopika Risam (Salem State University)
Cartographies of the Living and the Dead: Mapping Global Migration
Anne McNevin (The New School)
Time, Digital Media, and the Figure of the Migrant
11.30-13.00
Panel II
Networks, Affects and Activism
Moderator: Jonathan Corpus Ong (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Claudia Minchilli (Utrecht University)
Somali Women in Postcolonial Italy: Identity Construction Through Digital Connectedness
Donya Alinejad (Utrecht University)
Social Media and Feelings of Presence: Mobile Apps and Emotions in a Context of Transnational and Urban Mobility.
Radhika Gajjala (Bowling Green State University)
Migration and Mobility in Gendered Indian Digital Social Media Spaces: Revisiting “Ghar and Bahir
Break 13.00-14.00
(lunch provided for speakers only)
14.00-15.30
Panel III
Digital Migration in Europe
Moderator: Radha Hegde (New York University)
Melis Mevsimler (Utrecht University)
Divided Nation, Divided Diaspora: Crossroads of Gender and Homeland Politics in Everyday Lives of Migrant Women from Turkey in London
Myria Georgiou (London School of Economics/Annenberg School of Communication, USC)
The Communication Architecture of Humanitarian Securitization: Communicative Politics of Reception at Europe’s Borderland.
Koen Leurs (Utrecht University)
Connected Migrants and Digital Migration Studies in Europe
15.30-15.45
Coffee break
15.45-17.15
Panel IV
Cosmopolitan Interruptions
Moderator: Sandra Ponzanesi (Utrecht University/Columbia University)
Bruce Robbins (Columbia University)
The Refugee and the Beneficiary
Frances Negrón-Muntaner (Columbia University)
The Emptying Island: Puerto Rican Expulsion in Post-Maria Time
Wouter Omen (Utrecht University)
Humanitarian Communication, Common Humanities Playground
Move to Case Lounge, Columbia Law School
17.30 -18.45
Keynote
Chair: Sandra Ponzanesi
Mirca Madianou (Goldsmith, University of London)
Technocolonialism: Digital Innovation and Data in Humanitarian Practice
____________________________________________________________________
Day 2, Heyman Center Common Room
10.30-12.00
Panel V
Technologies for Change: Gaming, Piracy & Conviviality
Moderator: Koen Leurs (Utrecht University)
Dennis Tenen (Columbia University)
Global Book Piracy as Peer Preservation
Jonathan Corpus Ong/Maria Rovisco (University of Massachusetts, Amherst/University of Leicester)
Curating Conviviality
Joost Raessens (Utrecht University/NYU)
Life as a Refugee: Games for Change
Break 12.00-13.00
(Lunch Provided for speakers only)
13.00-14.30
Panel VI
Mediating Migration
Moderator: Marianne Hirsch (Columbia University)
Laura Candidatu (Utrecht University)
Digital Media and Diasporic Mothering: Romanian Diaspora in Amsterdam
Radha Hegde (New York University)
Diasporic Itinerancy and Remediated Authenticities
Ato Quayson (New York University)
Modes of the Selfie from Orality to Social Media
14.30-15.00
Coffee break
15.00-16.30
Panel VII
Beyond Connectivity and Surveillance
Moderator: Myria Georgiou (London School of Economics/Annenberg School of Communication, USC)
Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna/The New School)
The Border Regime as a Black Box? Migration, Logistics, and Digitalization in Europe and Beyond
Inderpal Grewal (Yale University)
Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants: Racial logics of digital production.
Miriam Ticktin (The New School)
Re-imagining Border Technologies, Designing New Political Forms
Move to Jerome Green Annex
17.00-18.30
Closing Keynote
Chair: Sandra Ponzanesi
Arjun Appadurai (New York University)
Narrative Panic and the Edges of Europe
For more information, see http://heymancenter.org/events/migration-in-a-digital-age-paradoxes-of-connectivity-and-belonging/
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