5^th European Geographies of Sexualities conference

Prague, 26-28 September 2019

‘Provincialising Europe: New Directions in Research on Sexualities, Gender and Migration’

Call for abstracts for panel session

Panel organizers: Francesca Stella, University of Glasgow ([log in to unmask] ); Jon Binnie, Manchester Metropolitan University ([log in to unmask]); Calogero Giametta, Aix-Marseilles University ([log in to unmask])

Language of the session: English

Panel abstract:

Moral panics around migration and a growing anti-immigration backlash are redrawing the political geography of Europe, and shaping new ideas of ‘European-ness’ and national belonging. This has put ‘sexual and gender migrants’ in a contradictory discursive space, as gender and sexual equalities are unevenly prized as national values while migrant bodies are ‘othered’ and subjected to scrutiny and control. Against the racialised reconfiguration of border-making practices on the outskirts and within ‘Fortress Europe’ (De Genova, 2017), and drawing on Dipesh Chakrabarty’s concept of ‘provincialising Europe’ and on Milica Bakić-Hayden’s notion of ‘nesting Orientalisms’, we would like to think through how this affects gender and sexual minorities’ migratory trajectories, experiences and sense of (un)belonging.

Over the last two decades, there has been a growing academic interest in exploring the relationship between sexuality, gender and migration. Lately there has also been a growth of interest in the relationship between mobilities, gender and sexualities inspired by the mobilities turn. In this session we would like to explore new and emerging perspectives in the field. We invite both empirically grounded and theoretical contributions, but particularly welcome ‘coalface’ empirical work on sexual and gender migrants’ lived experiences that opens up wider conceptual questions. The following might be considered:

Sexual rights and citizenship in a transnational context
Affective and emotional geographies of migration and mobilities
Spatial scales of (im)mobilities (e.g. immigration detention, messy and curtailed migration journeys)
Everyday geographies of queer mobilities and migration

Transgender mobilities and migration
Bisexual mobilities and migration
‘Sexual racisms’
The mobile politics of sexuality and gender activisms
Disabilities, mobilities and migration
Heterosexualities, mobilities and migration
(Sex) work, mobilities and migration
Class and the political economies of sexualities, gender and migration
Mobile politics of contentious movements around ‘gender ideology’

Paper proposals (max 250 words), as well as your name(s), affiliation(s) (optional) and/or scholarly interests (described by a max. of 5 keywords) and contact details, should be sent by April 12th, 2019 to:

Francesca Stella, [log in to unmask] and/or Jon Binnie, [log in to unmask] and/or Calogero Giametta [log in to unmask]

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