Utopia and Migration: Renewing the Imagination of Borders in the 21st c. / Utopie et Migration: Renouveler l'imaginaire des frontières au XXIe siècle (Oxford, en ligne)

Utopia and Migration: Renewing the Imagination of Borders in the 21st c.

Utopie et Migration: Renouveler l'imaginaire des frontières au XXIe siècle

Colloque tenu en français et en anglais

An online international conference with Achille Mbembe and Louis-Philippe Dalembert

With three special events (UK time)

- Talk by the writer Louis-Philippe Dalembert on Thursday 22 April, 11.30am
- Screening of the 'The Valley' in the presence of film director Nuno Escudeiro on Thursday 22 April, 3.30pm
- Public Lecture by Achille Mbembe on Friday 23 April, 3.30pm

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The International and Multidisciplinary Conference "Utopia and Migration" aims to contribute to the analysis of the borders imagination in the context of international migrations in the 21st century. It will raise the more specific question of how contemporary literature deals with the current issues related to borders from the perspective of utopia. What are these other ways that utopia traces to denounce and overcome discursive, media and state strategies aimed at making invisible, spoiling or stigmatising migrants, and thus strengthening borders? What alternatives to current border experiences can be explored through fiction? In what forms do they take place in the literary text? Which borders are targeted, those of the dream continent or the left one? How do these imaginative practices shed light on, or challenge, the relationship of contemporary societies to human mobility, to hospitality? The Conference invites the literary scientific field to a discussion with the Social Sciences in order to adequately address an issue whose study can contribute to rethinking the definitions of utopia, and in particular utopia as a literary genre, and to enriching migration studies.

More information and registration on Zoom: 

https://www.mfo.ac.uk/event/utopia-and-migration-renewing-imagination-borders-21st-c#collapse1913901

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Organising Committee

Justine Feyereisen

Sabrina Parent

Véronique Bragard

Matthew Reynolds 

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Scientific Committee

Véronique Bragard (Université Catholique de Louvain)

Robin Cohen (University of Oxford)

Justine Feyereisen (Fondation Wiener-Anspach, University of Oxford / Université libre de Bruxelles)

Xavier Garnier (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

Henriette Korthals Altes (Maison Française d’Oxford)

Thomas Lacroix (CNRS, Maison Française d’Oxford)

Alexis Nuselovici (Université d’Aix-Marseille)

Sabrina Parent (Université libre de Bruxelles)

Matthew Reynolds (University of Oxford)

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With the contribution of Rectorat, Faculté LTC, Département L&L and Philixte of the Université libre de Bruxelles, of INCAL of the Université Catholique de Louvain, of Maison Française d’Oxford, Wolfson College and OCCT of the University of Oxford, and Haute Ecole Robert Schuman.