Guest Speaker: Dr Mastoureh Fathi, University College Cork

Title of Talk: Migrant home objects: A Visual Approach to Understanding Materiality of the Sense of Belonging Among Migrant Women

Abstract: Material practices in migration are inundated with memories of past homes. Objects have an important role in how we remember past lives and homes but also how we experience current and imagine our future homes. However, the presence and absence of objects is always a double-edged sword in migration processes. When migrants move onwards, there can only carry a few objects with them whilst they have to leave behind those items that are not carriable (e.g. furniture). This distinction creates ruptures in how home in migration is envisaged. How is home experienced whilst its material entities are scattered across borders and in spaces that are never returned to? This question has not attracted much attention in migration studies whilst in anthropological approaches to migration, the role of objects are well examined.