Two-day symposium on memory and trauma through the history and culture of migrations announced for October 9th and 10th

We are pleased to announce, in collaboration with the Department of Humanities and with co-sponsorship from the Institute for Humanities, a two-day online symposium entitled "Memory and Trauma Through History and Culture: Migrations" on October 9th and 10th.

The 2015 Migration Crisis highlighted not only the enduring tragedy of mass displacement at the heart of global migratory flows but also the failure of migratory politics to address it. Crises seem to have become the status quo of the current century but perhaps the real crisis is the inability of social discourse to produce concrete analysis beyond a depoliticized humanitarianism and to transform analysis in action. How can the Humanities intervene in such discourse? The study of mass migration is often done in isolation, both in terms of the events themselves and in terms of academic disciplines. Also, the experiences of individuals participating in these events are often neglected due to migration studies being a policy-driven field. This event, a multidisciplinary initiative examining migration in different geographic and historic contexts, will highlight the continuities and breaks that exist within the phenomenon. The symposium will also offer political and cultural insights into how migration has, and continues to, shape our world, and in so doing establish a dialogic space on the issue.

When:
Friday, October 9th from 2:30-6:30 pm and Saturday, October 10th, 2020 from 9:30-3:30pm

Where:
Online

How:
This event is free and open to the public. Register before Wednesday, October 7th, to receive a link to the webinars. Missed the registration deadline? Send an email to hscomm@sfu.ca if you would still like to participate.

Event schedule

Friday, October 9th: 2:30 - 6:30 PM PT

Keynote Presentation - 2:45 PM

Moderator: Shuyu Kong, Simon Fraser University

Canada's Chinese Immigration Act: British Columbia’s Case for Exclusion

• Paul Crowe - Department of Humanities, Simon Fraser University

 

Panel I: Migrations in Modern History - 3:15 PM

Moderator: Julian Brooks, Douglas College

Children of Silence: Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Remembering as Trauma

• Lauren Faulkner Rossi - Department of History, Simon Fraser University

Mobilised Memories of Displacement and Violence

• Stevan Bozanich - Department of History, Simon Fraser University

Recreating the Past: Historiography in the People’s Republic of Macedonia, 1945-1991

• James Horncastle - Department of Humanities and SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies, Simon Fraser University

 

Panel II: Culture, Art and Migration - 4:45 PM

Moderator: Clint Burnham, Simon Fraser University

Walker’s Tales: Mobility as Method

• Stephen Collis - Department of English and Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University

Speech Acts in Search of a Subject: From Victimization to Enunciation in Recent Immigrants’ Life Writing in Italy

• Alessandra Capperdoni - Department of Humanities, Simon Fraser University

Inherited Memories: Fetishistic and Fantastic (Mis)Rememberings of Palestine

• Rawia Inaim - Department of English, Simon Fraser University

 

Saturday, October 10th: 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM PT

Panel III: Migration and Politics - 9:35 AM

Moderator: Sanem Guvenc, Emily Carr University of Art and Design

Scenes from a Traumatic History of Political Theory

• Samir Gandesha - Department of Humanities and Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University

Recodifying the Refugee: Palestine, Unspeakable Traumas, and Global Solidarity

• Jamil Khader -Department of English, Bethlehem University

Indigenous People and Migration in 21st Century Canada

• Eldon Yellowhorn - Department of Indigenous Studies, Simon Fraser University

 

Panel IV: Migrations in Antiquity, Renaissance and Medieval History - 11:30 AM

Moderator: Dimitris Krallis, Simon Fraser University

The Rebuilding of an Armenian Kingdom: Memory, Myth, Restorative Nostalgia, and the Archaeological Landscape

• Aurora Camaño - Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University

Migration under the Byzantine Empire: The Case of the Hot Border in Nisibis

• Sergio Basso - SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies, Simon Fraser University

 

Panel V: Migrations and Impact on the Individual - 2:00 PM

Moderator: Alessandra Capperdoni, Simon Fraser University

Trauma and Memory Transmission: Silence and the Body

• Hilda Fernandez - Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University

Memories from War: Living in Borderless Zones

• Habiba Zaman - Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University

Three Centuries, Three Continents, One Family

• Antone Lanatà Minard - Department of Humanities, Simon Fraser University