AAC : Thanatic Ethics : The Circulation of Bodies in Migratory Spaces International Conference #2 Response, Repair, Transformation, Decembrer 12–14, 2022 — Deadline : 10/​07/​2022

Thanatic Ethics : The Circu­la­tion of Bodies in Migra­tory Spaces Inter­na­tional Confe­rence #2

Response, Repair, Trans­for­ma­tion

Venue : Centre for the Study of Social Sciences (CSSSC)
Jadu­nath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, Kolkata, India
Dates : December 12–14, 2022
Language : English
Dead­line for submit­ting propo­sals : July 10, 2022
Noti­fi­ca­tion of accep­tance : August 10, 2022

This confe­rence will be held in person and parti­ci­pants will be expected to travel to the venue at their own cost, obtai­ning their visa as applicable.

Project Co-conve­nors :
Dr Bidisha Banerjee, Centre for Popular Culture in the Huma­ni­ties, the Educa­tion U. of Hong Kong
Dr Thomas Lacroix, Sciences Po-CERI /​Maison Fran­çaise d’Oxford
Dr Judith Misrahi-Barak, EMMA, Univer­sité Paul-Valéry Mont­pel­lier 3, France

Full descrip­tion of the Thanatic Ethics Project : https://​www​.thana​ti​ce​thics​.com
And also : https://emma.www.univ-montp3.fr/fr/valorisation-partenariats/programmes-européens-et-internationaux/thanatic-ethics

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“Thanatic Ethics : The Circu­la­tion of Bodies in Migra­tory Spaces” explores themes related to death in migra­tion. 

A trans­dis­ci­pli­nary series of webi­nars, on-site work­shops at Univer­sity Paul Valery, and a first inter­na­tional confe­rence held at the Maison Fran­çaise d’Oxford, explored themes such as the longing to be buried at ‘home’ for diasporic people, body repa­tria­tion in the context of migra­tion, the diffi­cult iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of bodily remains in the context of the current migrant crisis and its poli­tical and personal stakes, death under surveillance and the necro­po­li­tics of invi­si­bi­lity vs visi­bi­lity, migra­tion at the border, narra­tives of death, the poli­tics of grie­va­bi­lity and spec­tra­lity, the limi­na­li­ties of life, death and dying in migra­tion, etc. 

The migra­tion crisis in recent years has modi­fied our pers­pec­tive on death in migra­tion, at sea or on land. Recent works have sought to quan­tify the number of casual­ties (Heller and Pécoud 2017 ; Sapkota et al. 2006). Others strive to retrieve the iden­tity of the dead in the thin traces they left behind (Kobe­linsky and Le Courant 2017 ; Cattaneo 2018). And when nothing mate­rial is left, what endures is the memory of tragic wrecking, comme­mo­rated by plaques, monu­ments or art pieces, in the wake of earlier dumping of bodies over­board in colo­nial and slavery contexts.

The inverted torch in the Thanatic Ethics logo is one of the symbols of Thanatos, it can be flaming or extin­gui­shed, symbo­li­zing the flame of life or the extinc­tion of life and mour­ning. But it also brings to mind the Hippo­cratic oath and the cadu­ceus, refer­ring to the dimen­sion of care, which is one of the direc­tions the Thanatic Ethics Project means to take even­tually.

This call for papers is for a second inter­na­tional confe­rence entitled “Thanatic Ethics : Response, Repair, Trans­for­ma­tion”. After having explored the various facets of the ques­tion of death in migra­tion, we wish to examine the responses that are arti­cu­lated in such contexts of death in migra­tion, with a specific focus on the moda­li­ties of hospi­ta­lity, care and repair. 

How might we respond to migrant deaths ? How can lite­ra­ture, film, theatre and the arts respond to these trage­dies ? What lite­rary modes, if any, are best suited to writing about migrant deaths ? What role can acade­mics and scho­lars play in going beyond increa­sing the critical atten­tion to these deaths ? How might we navi­gate the border between scho­lar­ship and acti­vism ? Between the arts and acti­vism (Sievers 2021)? Can comme­mo­ra­tive prac­tices result in change-making acti­vism ? How can the arts offer a mode of “counter foren­sics” or “thana­to­poe­tics”? What are the conjunc­tions between the responses offered by social and poli­tical orga­ni­sa­tions, and those offered by artists, writers and poets ? What lessons has the Covid-19 pandemic taught us about death in migra­tion ? What role might sanc­tuary cities or huma­ni­ta­rian corri­dors play in preven­ting migrant deaths (Gois and Falchi 2017, Lippert and Rehaag 2013)?

We welcome contri­bu­tions from the Huma­ni­ties, Social Sciences and related disci­plines (multi and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary pers­pec­tives will be favoured) on the follo­wing themes in the context of death in migra­tion (though not exclu­si­vely):

- Responses to death in migra­tion (aesthe­tics, acti­vism, social, poli­tical and asso­cia­tive mobi­li­za­tion, indi­vi­dual and collec­tive moda­li­ties, etc.)
- Poli­tics of rescue vs ‘death by rescue’ (different poli­cies in different nation states, poli­tics of deter­rence and state violence vs poli­tics of rescue…)
- Welco­ming and hospi­ta­lity vs left-to-die migrants (soli­da­rity move­ments at the local, national and inter­na­tional levels)
- Emer­gence of empathy vs the end of empathy, and what comes after empathy
- Mour­ning as care and repair, as trans­for­ma­tive process (indi­vi­dual and collec­tive prac­tices)
- What can lite­ra­ture and the arts do that scho­lar­ship and acti­vism cannot ? What common ground can be created and with what moda­li­ties ?
- Mour­ning, grief, conso­la­tion, comme­mo­ra­tion
- Case studies of instances when colla­bo­ra­tion between rescue orga­ni­sa­tions and artists was parti­cu­larly fruitful.

We invite contri­bu­tors to send their propo­sals (a 250-­word abstract, title, author’s name, a 150-word bio, and contact infor­ma­tion) to the Thanatic Ethics email address : thanaticethics@​gmail.​com.

Being focused on such an emotio­nally chal­len­ging topic as “Thanatic Ethics”, it would also be possible for the spea­kers to explore alter­na­tive ways of presen­ting their work and /​or research that would be more sharing than presen­ting, adop­ting non-tradi­tional modes of invol­ving the parti­ci­pants. It may include open mic inter­ven­tions, open discus­sions, group panels with parti­ci­pants coming from different disci­plines who plan to prepare their panel collec­ti­vely, artistic or staged presen­ta­tions, crea­tive work­shops, performed talks, inter­ac­tive and /​or multi­lin­gual conver­sa­tions, etc. Through these alter­na­tive moda­li­ties we hope to reflect the theme of care and repair in the orga­ni­sa­tion of the confe­rence itself. In this case, a time requi­re­ment for consi­de­ra­tion should be included in the proposal. Conven­tional 20-minute papers, followed by discus­sion time, are of course very welcome too, as are combi­na­tions of both.