Eighth network workshop - Helping asylum seekers through arts inclusion

Encounters and Intersections: Religion, Diaspora and Ethnicities Conference

9th-11th July, 2008 (NB: after the Making the Connections Conference, 3-4th July, Loughborough)
St Catherine’s College, Oxford

The Diasporas, Migration and Identities Programme is hosting a joint conference with the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, and the ESRC Identities and Social Action Programme. The conference will be entitled: Encounters and Intersections: Religion, Diaspora and Ethnicities, and will be held at St Catherine’s College, Oxford from 9-11 July, 2008.

Below you will find some information about the conference, and I look forward to hearing from you if you are submitting an abstract (details below), which needs to reach me by email by 28 February 2008 (k.a.roche[@]leeds.ac.uk). A booking form is also attached, which should be returned to Kerry Carter at the address given.

This conference takes encounter and intersection as its frame. It explores the nature of relations between different faith and ethnic groups, between diasporic and indigenous citizens and between convivial, and not so convivial, multicultures in current, complex, post colonial contexts. We are interested in patterns and trends in contemporary identity practices, the intersections between social identities and how intersection and multiplicity are experienced and lived.

Encounters can be hostile, intimate, violent, anxious, celebratory, defensive, banal or historic. Participants can feel consumed, tolerated, included, marginalised or empowered. In policy terms, encounters can be read through the lens of ‘community cohesion’, the ‘duty to integrate’ or the ‘clash of civilisations’. How do different forms of encounter organise (and how are they organised by) particular relational spaces? How do they create and reflect ‘contact zones’? How do people negotiate multiple identities of faith, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, place, etc? What are the social, political and ethical consequences?

This conference is organised by the ESRC/AHRC Programme on Religion and Society ( www.religionand society.org.uk), the AHRC Programme on Diasporas, Migration and Identities ( www.diasporas.ac.uk ) and the ESRC Programme on Identities and Social Action (www.identities.org.uk). It will show-case the interdisciplinary research taking place in the UK on these themes across the arts, social sciences and humanities.

The conference includes a keynote address from Prof. Paul Gilroy (London School of Economics) and author of After Empire; The Black Atlantic and Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack.

There will be panels on Living Intersections – New British Identities and Encounters – Materials, Spaces and Performances highlighting the research being conducted in the three Programmes. The conference will include parallel sessions of paper presentations, photographic and poster exhibitions, a conference dinner, drinks receptions and many opportunities for discussion and networking with researchers from a wide range of disciplinary and intellectual perspectives.

We welcome submissions to present papers (20 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions) on the conference themes. Your paper might present some empirical findings, it might consist of a performance, a theoretical review, critique and new argument; it might consist of a textual analysis, raise provocative questions or analyse one case, site or context. Abstracts should be submitted to Katie Roche (k.a.roche[@]leeds.ac.uk) by the 28th of February, 2008 including full contact details for all authors.

Left luggage

Image (c) John Perivolaris, all rights reserved

Image maker's subgroup co-ordinator Jon Perivolaris has launched a year-long photographic project/blog on the theme of objects of migration, entitled Left Luggage. As he explains:

"An empty suitcase lent for a month each to a series of collaborators. Each one fills the suitcase with objects of their choice and according to the project’s key terms. These are:

Homeland
Journey
Arrival
Destination

The idea for the project was sparked when my mother gave me my grandfather’s monogrammed, leather suitcase. For several months it sat empty on the floor by my desk like an absent presence by my side.

I knew that the suitcase had travelled around the world with my grandfather, who was a sea captain with the Greek merchant navy. Why should it not continue on its travels as a tribute to the memory of Captain John Perivolaris, whose birthday was on the same date as mine?"

see: http://leftluggage.wordpress.com/

Telling tales

A fabulous event at University of Northampton today - thanks to Judith, Jackie and all participants. The seventh Making the Connections event focused on issues of narrative, storytelling and identity with a focus on the postcolonial, and was well attended by academics, activists and artists from Northampton and the wider East Midlands. The Avenue campus at Northampton provided a suitably art-full environment to explore these isses



After introductions and words from those working in Northamptonshire with ethnic minority communities, Rea Dennis gave a storytelling/performance that dealt with some key issues of origins/belonging and journeys of self-discovery. from Northampton to Greece to Australia and back, Rea showed how telling tales can help people come to terms with experiences of loss, separaton and anxiety, and provide a space for exploring questions of identity




Workshops focusing on objects and stories of movement and migration bought some of the therapeutic value of storytelling into sharper relief, while a film present by Doug Smith on Northampton's Irish populations shoed how oral histories can be used as a resource for education: at the same time, the film raised questions about who was being represented, and how.

The day finished with a conversation with Guyanese novelist, academic and poet David Dabydeen, who spoke about his move from social realist accounts of migration and identit to more magic realist tropes, inspired in part by Guyanese tribal beliefs. Dismissing the search for an authentic home, he nonetheless spoke about his movements between, and imagingings of, his Guyanese, Indian and Coventrian homes. He particular reflected on his own family's experience: "my parents, and other people's parents, would have seen England not quite as an Utopia, or an El Dorado in reverse, but certainly as a place where jobs were plentiful and the people hospitable, and wealth within your grasp. I think there was the belief that if you went to England and worked, you could become wealthy, whereas in fact when they came, they were not welcome as they expected to be...I felt a…sense of displacement, and lived with the reality that …there was always the threat of violence" (from http://www.humboldt.edu/~me2/engl240b/student_projects/dabydeen/dabydeenbio.htm).

An inspiring, provocative and entertaining day!

18th December - a date for your diary

John Perivaloris, who is heading up the Making The Connections image makers' subgroup, has drawn my attention to Radio 1812, a global event dedicated to International Migrants Day, producing and broadcasting programmes from radios worldwide. As well as clips from last year's broadcasts, the site has some of John's stunning photos

See:

http://www.radio1812.net/it/image_galleries/migrados_2003_2005



(rights reserved, John Perivolaris)

7th Making the Connections event

Telling Tales: a free workshop exploring issues of narrativity, diaspora and migration with a focus on the value of telling stories. The event is, as per usual, free with assistance available for the unwaged. Pre-registrations by 8th November.

AHRC award!

Maggie O'Neill and Phil Hubbard have been awarded a 12 month Knowledge Transfer Fellowship to extend and develop the activities of the network, developing an online database of artists and activist in the East Midlands working around themes of asylum, diaspora and migration and completing a Sense of Belonging project to explore experiences of dislocation. The award will involve the collaboration of Loughborough University with Long Journey Home, Charnwood Arts, City Arts and Soft Touch, and is an outcome of the ongoing collaborations fostered by the network.

More news to follow!