Past events

Workshop: Can a Person Be Illegal?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Refugees, Migrants and Citizenship in Europe

19-21 May, Uppsala University, Sweden

Background
Program
Organisers
Venue map and how to get to Uppsala

Background

“The fact that the problem of autonomy immediately refers to, is even identified with, the problem of the relation of one subject to another – or to others; the fact that the other or others do not appear there as external obstacles or as a malediction to be suffered – ‘Hell is other people’, ‘living with others is like being under an evil spell’ – but instead as constitutive of the subject, of the problem of the subject and of its possible solution; these facts recall what, after all, was certain from the start for anyone who is not mystified by the ideology of a certain philosophy, namely, that human existence is multiple [a plusieurs] and that whatever is said neglecting this presupposition is sheer nonsense.”

Cornelius Castoriadis, “Marxism and Revolutionary Theory” (first published in French, 1964-1965) in The Castoriadis Reader, Blackwell 1997, p 183.

Recalling Cornelius Castoriadis’s words about other people as possible solutions rather than problems, and, at the same time, evoking both the name and the work of the network No One is Illegal, the theme for the 2016 meeting of the international research network Social Imaginaries and Creation is centred on the recent unsettling events within and on the borders of Europe. Are we facing a European union showing itself to be but an association for the already wealthy, the ones who already are safely installed within their citizenship and passports? Or are the political events of recent months – and especially the reactions they have triggered in many different political camps, governmental as well as auto-organised – rather a sign that something fundamental is changing, or at least about to change? A change, perhaps, towards a more profound political and human engagement with the major ideological issues surrounding migration, autonomy and human rights?

Original Call for Papers

Program

THURSDAY MAY 19, ROOM 6-1022

12.15 MATS ROSENGREN: Welcome – On academic responsibility, again.

13.15 JEAN LASSÈGUE: The Daoud Affair – On extra-European Secularism, Literature and Migration of Ideas in a Time of Crisis

14.15 PHILIPPE CAUMIÈRES: Closure of the meaning; border of the political

15.15 COFFEE

15.45 FIRAT MAHMUT HACIAHMETOGLU: Non-European European: A novel postcolonial approach to Europe and its Others

16.45 STINE MARIE JACOBSEN & NASTARAN TAJERI-FOUMANI: German for Newcomers

18.30 CECILIA PARSBERG: How do you become a successful beggar in Sweden?

19.30 PARTICIPANTS DINNER (ROOM 6-1022)

FRIDAY MAY 20, ROOM 6-1022

09.00 COFFEE

09.15 EMANUELE PROFUMI (FRENCH): Loi, force et politique. Quand la violence devient norme sociale?

10.15 OLIVIER FRESSARD (FRENCH): L’utopie cosmopolite

11.15 SHARON RIDER: “Little Mr. Satisfaction”: Ortega’s Challenge to European Man

12.15 LUNCH

13.15 ALEXANDER STAGNELL: The Fantasy of Diplomacy

14.15 SAMIRA MOTAZEDI, FRIDA SANDSTRÖM & MASOUD VATANKHAH: Neshast

15.15 COFFEE

15.45 SAMIRA MOTAZEDI, FRIDA SANDSTRÖM & MASOUD VATANKHAH: No One is Illegal (Ingen Människa är illegal)

16.45 LOUISE SCHOU THERKILDSEN: Periphery and Borders in European Identity

17.45 SCHELLEKENS & PELEMAN: Inflatable Refugee

20.00 PARTICIPANTS DINNER (RESTAURANT MEZA, UPPSALA)

SATURDAY MAY 21, ROOM 6-1031

09.00 COFFEE

09.15 INGELA NILSSON & OLOF HEILO: The Fragile Borders of Europe

10.15 ANTHONY JOHN LAPPIN: Borders of the Self

11.15 DIMITRIOS IORDANOGLOU & JOHANNES SIAPKAS: Dystopic democracy: the double life of Classical Athens

12.15 LUNCH

13.15 ROBERT APPELBAUM: Citizenship and The Comedy of Errors

14.15 STATHIS GOURGOURIS: The Ill Logic of Fortress Europe

15.15 MATS ROSENGREN Thank you and goodbye!

For abstracts see the downloadable program.

Venue map and how to get to Uppsala

Link to venue map

Participants arriving at Arlanda airport have a number of options to get to Uppsala. You can either take UL Bus 801 (45 minutes) from Terminals 2, 4 and 5, the SL commuter train (20 minutes), or the SJ InterCity train (20 minutes), both departing from Arlanda Central Station.

The participants who had their hotel arrangements taken care of by the workshop will be staying at Scandic Uplandia: https://www.scandichotels.com/hotels/sweden/uppsala/scandic-uplandia?_ga=1.198102375.998444258.1461569679

Organisers

The workshop is co-arranged by the research programme Engaging Vulnerability, the network Social Imaginaries and Creation and the Section for Rhetoric, Department of Literature, Uppsala University.

Organizing Committee

The organising committee for the 2016 meeting of Social Imaginaries and Creation at Uppsala University, Sweden:

All at the Department of Literature, Uppsala University.