Call for Paper
Contemporary migrant subjectivities.
The processes of exclusion and inequalities directly linked to global integration and to international political, social and economic crises have had a dramatic impact on contemporary transnational mobility, in particular determining, on the one hand, a heterogeneous intensification of migration, while, on the other, a strengthening of real and symbolic borders migrant subjectivities have to cross.
Such migrant subjectivities are often objectified in institutional interventions, defined according to generic and over-imposed normative references, ascribed to pre-determined social categories, often marginalized or only partially included in the different social contexts within which they move. Recent studies have highlighted how important processes of subjectivation/ de-subjectivation also happen within migratory spaces, in a continuous confrontation between the institutional and social self and us (M. Ambrosini, L’ invasione immaginaria. L’immigrazione oltre i luoghi comuni, Laterza, Roma, 2020; M. Ambrosini, Altri cittadini. Gli immigrati nei percorsi della cittadinanza, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2020). In the analysis of these processes, it is important to understand the different national and transnational articulations of migration as these are useful for the critical analysis of wider phenomena related to them, such as globalization, multiculturalism, vulnerability/precariousness, integration and inclusion.
Starting from the theoretical dimensions elaborated by Michel Wieviorka (La violence, Balland, Paris, 2004) – subject, not subject, anti-subject, hyper-subject, subject in survival – the call focuses on the processes of subjectivation/de-subjectivation related to the migratory experience. The aim is to analyse, with an interdisciplinary approach, the paths of construction/ deconstruction of subjectivities that cross and are crossed by economic, institutional, cultural, social hegemonic logic, in relation to which the same possibility of action of the subject is denied, limited, but also reworked in a possible ‘safe space’ or places of resistance. This unfolds in heterogeneous and uncertain personal and collective experiences, defining rebellious subjectivities that contribute to the creation of a possible public space of opposition (A. Neumann, «Conceptualiser l’espace public oppositionnel», Variations, 19, 2016), to the erosion of collective norms, to the delegitimization of capitalism, to the deterioration of the democratic representativeness of the State.
With this aim, four areas of reflection will be explored:
1) Institutional subjectivation/de-planning of migrants in the digital society.
Donatella Loprieno (University of Calabria) Claudio Di Maio (University of Calabria)
The panel welcomes contributions aiming to analyse and to further understand the dynamics of the relationship between foreigners and state authorities in a legal perspective, in the processes of recognition and use of personal subjectivity, regarding the mechanisms of social integration as well as concerning their relationship with economic and work inclusion, taking into account the institutional dimension and the processes resulting from the representation of the subject in the digital society.
2) Gender, sexuality, migrations.
Giovanna Vingelli (University of Calabria) Sabrina Garofalo (Centre of Women’s Studies Milly Villa-UniCal)
The panel welcomes contributions focusing on the experience of displacement, of the redefinition of identities and relational dimensions, considering experiences of displacement and the transformations in gender relations that migrations produce as a necessary stimulus to the reworking/ redefinition of analytical concepts and categories used for the reading of the most recent migratory phenomena. Specifically, academics and non-academics are invited to submit reports (concerning research or intervention projects) reflecting on differences (gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, social class, age, religious belief, etc.) and on the intersections of these categories, on their interaction with each other or with other dimensions of identity and subjectivity. In particular, preference will be given to contributions that – deconstructing migration studies’ hetero-normative assumptions – address gender and sexualities issues in migration pathways and in departure and arrival contexts. The postcolonial reflection, gender and post-colonial feminist theory, LGBTQ theory, Critical race theory are, particularly, welcome.
3) Migration dynamics, discrimination and subjectivation.
Anna Elia (University of Calabria) Piero D. Galloro (Université de Lorraine)
The panel welcomes contributions exploring processes of construction and possible actions of deconstruction of discriminations, focusing on people with migratory backgrounds’ subjectivation/ de-subjectivation paths. In particular, papers analysing perception and experience of discrimination are preferred with both a theoretical and an empirical perspective, considering different social and institutional contexts, together with studies of the paths of self-recognition of persons and groups discriminated within practices, interventions and narratives. A particular area of interest is also the social representations related to discrimination in an interdisciplinary perspective observing their multiple and intersectional dimensions.
4) Resistant subjectivities: art and media spaces in migrations.
Valentina Fedele (Università degli Studi Link) Fabrizio Di Buono (University of Calabria/ FLACSO Argentina)
The panel welcome contributions highlighting forms of diasporic art and art activism, both from a theoretical point of view (e.g. arts as an inclusion tool; arts as statements of the resistant self; arts as counter-hegemonic narratives) and from an experiential point of view (e.g. specific artistic narratives of the self and the other), in order to understand how these tools allow people to elaborate their own subjectivities within the conflicts arising from the labour social division and the creation of multiple borders, highlighting the process of de-identification that art plays with respect to the forms of socialization of individuals and the construction of subjects. The media dimension related to migration will also be considered, with particular attention to the transnational narratives of the migratory experience, their role in relation to the reproduction/reconstruction of a migrant imaginary, and in the possible definition of a migrant memory.
Extended papers (In Italian, French or English, max. 8.000 characters, spaces, notes and bibliography included), accompanied by a short author bio (ca. 250 characters, spaces included) must be sent by 20/03/23 to convegnocapireunical@gmail.com, indicating in the object the workshop chosen for the presentation. Selected contributors will be invited to elaborate an essay based on their intervention, to be subsequently published.