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Call for Papers "Borders and Boundaries" 14th Nordic Migration Researcher Conference International Migration and Ethnic Relations Research Unit (IMER), University of Bergen Bergen (Norway) 14-16 November 2007 __________________________________________________ The theme for the Nordic Migration Researcher Conference points to issues of sovereignty, demarcation, distinction, exclusion and discrimination, but also to issues of transience, communication across distinction, and acceptance. Aspects of the global turn and the Europeanization of Europe, not least as manifest in migration and migrant populations, have brought border and boundary issues to the forefront not only in social science and humanities scholarship, but also placed them with exceptional prominence on the political agenda. The conference will be organized in plenaries, subplenaries, and workshops. For each of the three days, the plenaries will focus around a specific topic. The following topics have been defined: - Transnationalism and the relevance of borders: Specifically, the relevance of state/European borders in our attempts to understand migratory movements and migrant population integration. What reshapings of the sovereignty regimes do we see, and why? Do we see a development towards a sociology of mobility? Or do we see a re-nationalization within Europe? Borders, boundaries and identity construction are crucial issues here. - Mobility and gender: Increasingly, there has been a stronger and much needed focus on gender within studies in international migration and ethnic relations. This plenary will deal with, and tie together, some ways in which gender constructions are tied to imaginaries of community, and gendered distinctions in agency and the quality of life. - Globalizing idioms and human rights: Increasingly, globalizing and essentializing idioms, especially religious and ethnic ones, have been seen as major impediments to reasoned resolutions to conflicts and controversies. These idioms have been largely contrasted with human rights perspectives. The plenary will explore these issues, with particular attention also to the essentializing dimensions in the human rights discourses. The Conference theme will be particularly elucidated through plenary programs and a number of invited workshops. It is important to note, however, that the Nordic Migration Researcher Conference has a strong tradition of inclusiveness, and derives one of it major benefits from being the major gathering point for all Nordic and other researchers dealing with IMER issues. The theme, Borders and Boundaries, is therefore also to be understood as wide enough to serve as a vehicle for enticing researchers to present a rich and diverse result of scholarship, theoretically, topically, geographically. Submission of abstracts: 15 September 2007 Submission of paper: 1 October 2007 Abstracts will only be accepted through online submission. For more information see the conference website: http://www.svf.uib.no/sfu/imer/conferences/ Contact: International Migration and Ethnic Relations Research Unit University of Bergen Unifob Global P.O. Box 7800 5020 Bergen Norway Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.svf.uib.no/sfu/imer/conferences/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
