[ecrea] Call for Papers - Migration in Artistic, Academic and Media Discourses

Call for Papers
Routes of Difference
Migration in Artistic, Academic and Media Discourses
6th Graduate Conference in Culture Studies
School of Human Sciences - Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon
November 24-25, 2016

Although migratory movements have always existed throughout history, 
migration is nowadays usually associated with globalization and the 
resulting increase in the global mobility of people and information. In 
contrast to other forms of movement, migration normally refers to a 
relatively permanent displacement of individuals or groups from one 
region or country to another. However, migration describes a variety of 
experiences, referring to different groups of individuals, such as 
refugees, economic or environmental migrants and cosmopolitan elites 
with distinct social, political and legal status.
While traditional essentializing and stabilizing notions of identity 
have long proven problematic and scholars have, thenceforth, developed 
positive concepts of exile (Said) and (cultural) hybridity (Bhabha), 
migrants and their descendants often continue to be marginalized and 
translated as culturally “other”. The sudden explosion of visibility of 
the so-called “refugee crisis” in Europe that we have witnessed over the 
past months illustrates the power of media and artistic representations 
in fostering social awareness of migratory groups. However, it also 
reveals that visibility does not necessarily challenge existing power 
relations. In fact, it often seems difficult to overcome binary identity 
positions that are closely related to the genealogy of terms such as 
“home” or “belonging”. Therefore, it is necessary to ask how artistic 
and cultural images and narratives of present and past migratory 
movements (in literature, cinema, theatre, music, visual culture, or 
academic discourse) negotiate processes of othering. How does migration 
influence representations of difference? Should the theoretical framing 
of "in-betweenness" be re-conceptualized?
The conference aims at exploring how representations of migration 
reflect, construct or challenge notions of difference and cultural 
hybridity by bringing together researchers from diverse disciplinary 
fields. We welcome contributions addressing representations of migration 
in different historical and geographical contexts.

Topics might include but are not limited to:
• aesthetics and rhetorics of representations of migration and the 
migrant condition
• different discursive traditions of migration: diaspora, exile, forced 
displacements
• reception of artistic expressions of migration by the public
• impact of migrant condition on artistic production
• representation of migration and reconfiguration of visual modes
• diasporic and borderland writing
• migration and transnational literature / cinema
• migration and translation
• transcultural / transnational memory and migration
• collective / cultural memory in migratory settings
• migration and alterity within official histories
• transgenerational memory and migration
• transculturality and identity politics

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Michael Rothberg (University of Illinois)
Margarida Calafate Ribeiro (Universidade de Coimbra)
Alexandra Lopes (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)
* more to be announced



Paper Proposals:
The conference language is English. Speakers should prepare for a 
20-minute presentation followed by questions. Please send a 250-word 
abstract, as well as a brief biographical note (100 words) to 
(routesofdifference /at/ gmail.com) by 30th April 2016.
Proposals should list the paper title, name, institutional affiliation, 
and contact details. Notification of abstract acceptance or rejection 
will take place by 31st May 2016.
For more information please consult: 
https://routesofdifference.wordpress.com/

Organization:
The Graduate Conference in Culture Studies is an annual meeting 
organized by Doctoral students of the Programme in Culture Studies The 
Lisbon Consortium, based at the School of Human Sciences of Catholic 
University of Portugal.
Registration fee: 60€



CECC - Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura
Research Centre for Communication and Culture
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
(cecc /at/ fch.lisboa.ucp.pt)
+351 21 72 14 193






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