(Im)Migration Patterns:
Displacement and Relocation in Contemporary America
October 10-12, 2014
The topic of the conference invites contributors to explore recent reflections centered on issues of migration, more specifically patterns of immigration into the United States of America, and discuss current ways of surviving, coping with and embracing the experiences of displacement and relocation in an increasingly globalized world. Some of the questions the conference hopes to address are: is (im)migration assisted by the social, political and economic contexts of recent decades; have individuals and communities developed new mechanisms of dealing with the trauma of leaving one’s homeland(s); do diasporas make effective use of the media and networking facilities of today’s digitalized world for their own purposes. These questions lend themselves to an ethnic and migration studies approach, including perspectives emerging from literary studies, media studies, cultural studies, geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, political science, international relations, law, economics and other associated fields.
Proposals for papers and panel discussions can relate, but are not limited, to the following topics:
· conceptualizing (im)migration: theoretical developments;
· paradigms of (im)migration: synchronic and diachronic perspectives;
· immigration policies: legal debates and extra-legal overtones;
· (forced) migration and its internal/external impacts;
· re-mapping places of origin, contested territories, adopted homes;
· trauma and memory with dis/re-location;
· cultures of dis/re-placement and their representation(s);
· (im)migrant cultural productions: challenges and solutions;
· diasporic re-negociations in a digitalized/globalized world;
· migration situatedness: gender and ethnicity;
· crossing national/ethnic/racial borders;
· (im)migrant mobility/fluidity/instability: conflict and reconciliation.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the recipient of the 2009 MELUS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Ethnic Studies, has accepted our invitation to participate in the conference as a key-note speaker.
Proposals for 20-minute papers should be submitted by June 15, 2014 in the form of an abstract of 150-200 words. As each paper will be followed by 10-minute discussions, participants are kindly asked to limit the presentation to their time-slot. Those interested in proposing a panel discussion should submit the title and the names of at least three other academics who will participate in the talk.
If you are interested in participating, please fill in the registration form attached separately to this message and return it to Ludmila Martanovschi, RAAS Secretary, Ileana Jitaru, RAAS Treasurer, and Nicoleta Stanca at the following e-mail address: [email protected].
Conference fee: RAAS members: 150 RON;
Non-RAAS members: 75 EURO / 100 USD