[ecrea] Call for Chapters - Migration by Boat

Call for chapters: Migration by Boat: theories, politics, and memories - 
EDITED Collection



Seeking original chapters for a collection tentatively titled, Migration 
by Boat: theories, politics, and memories, which will explore ocean 
travel undertaken by refugees, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants as 
a space and place where cultures intersect, and national boundaries and 
identities are reshaped, both in painful and creative ways. Migration by 
boat can symbolically be aligned with notions of deterritorialization 
that often support fears, yet also allow for renegotiations of identity, 
memory and feelings. Contributions from a multidisciplinary cohort are 
welcome. Authors are encouraged to submit provocative original writing 
(conceptual, empirical or theoretical) that emphasize how migration by 
boat is remembered and represented; effects individual and social or 
cultural identity; and challenges or reinforces cultural or social 
structures. Deadline for abstracts of 500-750 words, together with a 
short CV including contact details, and one example of previously 
published work in a relevant field is September 30, 2013.



Unregulated movements of people via ocean voyages are often viewed as 
threatening to the solidarity of the national spaces that they arrive 
in, so much so that these arrivals have the power to wash away 
humanitarian sentiments. Increasingly, scholars are attempting to 
understand how “transnational flows of people, media and commodities” 
(Escobar 2001) can be viewed outside of standard dualistic terms and 
away from clear-cut juxtapositions of citizen/stranger, land/water, and 
victim/threat. Symbolically, boats can be viewed as spaces and places 
where hopes and fears along with “poetics and politics are mobilized” 
(Perera 2013). In this context, boats carrying asylum seekers, refugees, 
and illegal immigrants not only move people and cultural capital between 
places, but also fuel cultural fantasies, dreams of adventure and hope, 
along with fears of invasion and terrorism. Oceanic voyages also 
represent liminal periods were human beings are “betwixt and between” 
(Turner 1969) real lives and national identities, nevertheless, 
communities are formed and relationships are fostered while en route.

Possible themes (not a restrictive list) might include: How are arrivals 
of asylum seekers by boat represented in media portrayals, visually or 
discursively? Symbolic and emotional elements related to migration by 
boat. Rethinking place and space in relation to bodies of water. The 
effects of migration by boat on identity in relation to gender, race, 
class, etc. Narratives and memories related to forced migration and 
travel by boat? The “boat” as saviour/home/refuge, and conversely, the 
“boat” as traumatic experience.  How have representations of migrations 
by boat shifted with the digital revolution? Have representations of 
migrations by boat changed in the era of globalization? How can the 
elusive nature of travel by boat be compared to, or juxtaposed the 
elusive nature of memory. Trauma and migration through ocean passages. 
How is this narrated, visualized and politicized? The intersections of 
identity, nation, citizenship and ocean travel. Travel by boat as a 
mediator of personal, social and/or cultural transformation, in both 
modern and historical contexts. Representations of migration by boat in 
popular culture, movies, literature, art, performances etc.

Chapters should be written in English and should not have been 
previously been published. Each final chapter will be between 6,000-7500 
words (including references). Images are welcome. However, authors will 
be responsible for obtaining all rights for the publication of 
photographs etc. as well as research interviews that were undertaken 
(forms will be provided later).

Deadlines: September 30, 2013: Send abstracts of 500-750 words, together 
with a short CV including contact details, and one example of previously 
published work in a relevant field. December 15, 2013: Acceptance 
letters will be sent to authors. May 30, 2014: Submission of chapters. 
Please submit all expressions of interest and abstracts/CVs to 
(lyndamannik /at/ trentu.ca) Preferably with the subject line: Migration by Boat

Dr. Lynda Mannik is a Visiting Assistant Professor in cultural 
anthropology at Trent University. She recently published Photography, 
Memory and Refugee Identity: the voyage of the S.S. Walnut, 1948 with 
the University of British Columbia Press. Through memories and 
photographs it explores the experiences of Estonian refugees, who 
migrated from Sweden to Canada in search of a safe haven after Stalin 
occupied their homeland. Their 32-day voyage across the Atlantic is 
central to understanding how identity and memories shift in conjunction 
with the in-between spaces that are created through forced migration and 
across geographical spaces. Mannik has also co-edited a volume titled, 
Reclaiming Canadian Bodies: Representation and Visual Media, which looks 
at how representations of Canadian bodies are constructed and performed 
within the context of visual and discursive mediated content (Wilfrid 
Laurier Press, 2014). Her chapter compares two photographic portrayals 
in the Canadian press, the arrival of the Walnut in 1948 and the arrival 
of the Amelie in 1987, to demonstrate how refugees’ bodies are used to 
visually promote timely state ideologies, and also to establish and 
control types of ‘ethnic others’ that are granted inclusion. Mannik is 
also the author of Canadian Indian Cowboys in Australia: Representation, 
Rodeo and the RCMP at the Royal Easter Show, 1939 (University of Calgary 
Press, 2006) and has published in Visual Studies, and Memory Studies.


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