Events calendar
‘In Search of Lost Futures: Visual Media Narratives of Economic Migration in the Mediterranean'
Location: MS.05 Zeeman Building
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Kay Dickinson (University of Glasgow)
Dr. Barbara Spadaro (University of Liverpool)
The phenomenon of economic migration has millennia-old roots. However, in
recent decades,
especially since the advent of decolonisation movements and the globalisation of
the economic sphere, migration has increasingly been viewed as a
predominantly socio-economic occurrence. Lack of primary resources (water,
minerals, land), pollution,
political instability, war, lack of employment opportunities, and climate change
are all
contributing factors to the movement of people.
In particular, the Mediterranean has been at the focus of visual representations
narrating its
heterogenous mobilities. From ancient representations of Aeneas’
peregrinations, up to the
recent proliferation of images of small boats arriving on Europe’s shores, visual
representations of migration in the Mediterranean have shaped imaginaries of
human mobility. In the context of the ‘visual turn’ and the increasing presence of
social and
mass media, the conference explores visual narratives and representations of
migration within - and beyond - the Mediterranean Sea. The conference will
unravel how visual narratives of migration (such as paintings, photographs,
performances, documentaries, features and short films, and comics) may foster
alternative visions and shape different imaginaries of the heterogenous issues
grounding migratory phenomena. We will bring together an interdisciplinary
network of
scholars and practitioners to examine how this extensive production of visual
narratives works to reconfigure socioeconomic and political challenges through
diverse representations of the intimately human experiences of displaced
subjects and migrants.