Inaugural Refugee and Migration Network meeting

The Inaugural Refugee and Migration Network Meeting aims to encourage debates between researchers of different schools, disciplines and career stages based at Loughborough University, including researchers from at-risk backgrounds. It aims to identify cross-cutting themes in research to lay the ground for future collaborations. It is linked to Loughborough University's plan to become a University of Sanctuary and will be an opportunity to raise awareness of the work of LUSARG (Loughborough University for Students and Academics at Risk Group) and to discuss how researchers can contribute to it in the future.

This event has been organised by Laura Dale (IAS, LUSARG member), Dr Azmeary Ferdoush (Lecturer in Human Geography, 'Migration, borders and mobility' research group lead), and Dr Alena Pfoser (Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies, LUSARG member). 

The keynote speeches of this event will be shown online, please use the "Book Zoom Webinar Attendance" button at the bottom of this page if you wish to join these online, otherwise, use "Book In-Person Attendance".

Programme
10:30am - 4:00pm

10:00am - 10:30am: Arrival & Refreshments

10:30am - 11:00am: Introductions - Rachel Thompson (Provost and Deputy VC) & Malcolm Cook (Professor of Building Performance Analysis, Dean of ABCE, Chair of LUSARG)

11:00am - 11:45am: Keynote Lecture I - Camilo Boano (Professor of Urban Design and Critical Theory, Politecnico di Torino) "The cruel optimism of architecture: fugitive spaces and infrastructures of desertion"

11:45am - 12:30am: Keynote Lecture II - Sara de Jong (Professor of Politics and International Relations, York) “We Are Here, Because You Were There: The rights and forced migration of Afghan Interpreters”

12:30am - 1:15pm: Lunch

1:15pm - 2:15pm: Roundtable - ‘Interdisciplinary perspectives on research on refugees and displacement’ with Ksenia Chmutina (Professor of Disaster Studies and Director of IAS), Azmeary Ferdoush (Lecturer in Human Geography), Ksenija Kuzmina (Senior Lecturer, Institute for Creative Futures and Programme Director, Institute for Creative Futures), Anastasiya Pshenychnykh (CARA fellow Council for At-Risk Academics support scheme, 2022–2024), Michelle Richey (Senior Lecturer in Technology and Entrepreneurship) and Robyn Smith (Postdoctoral Research Fellow (ESRC Funded)), chaired by Alena Pfoser (Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies and LUSARG member).

2:15pm - 2:30pm: Coffee break

2:30pm - 3:30pm: Networking

3:30pm - 4:00pm: Concluding discussion and next steps

Keynote Details - 

Professor Camilo Boano - The cruel optimism of architecture: fugitive spaces and infrastructures of desertion

Anthropologist Stefania Consigliere suggests that “the whole of human activity is nothing other than this: the construction of new refuges.” This talk begins with that assertion and seeks to reflect on its significance in a time when two global, competing tendencies exert pressure on the present: the annihilation of spaces and territories, and the cruel optimism embedded in architecture and design. Drawing on Roland Barthes’s notion of “idiorrhythmic” and Franco “Bifo” Berardi’s concept of desertion, this reflection proposes the need to imagine, locate, and sustain fugitive spaces and infrastructures of desertion.

Camillo Boano is interested in urban design critque and philosophies of architecture.  He has practiced architecture in situations of conflict, emergency and urban informality in different contexts of the Global South and has worked on radical pedagogy and collective planning processes in Asia Middle East and Latin America. From 2006 to 2019 he was Full Professor of Urban Design and Critical Theory at UCL, London where he directed the MSc Building and Urban Design for Development at UCL, and was co-director of the UCL Urban Laboratory. In 2020 he returned to Italy to the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, at the DIST Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning. He currently has research in Latin America, the Middle East and the Black Mediterranean. In 2025 he is scheduled to publish, with Bristol University Press, Displacement Urbanism. Politics of bodies and spaces of abandonment and endurance, edited with Giovanna Astolfo

Professor Sara de Jong - We Are Here, Because You Were There: The rights and forced migration of Afghan Interpreters

With his phrase, 'We are here, because you were there' Ambalavaner Sivanandan (2008) poignantly captured the relation between colonialism, globalisation and migration. In this presentation, I draw on this quote to consider the continuities between neo-imperialism, war and migration and to centre the claims to rights and protection by marginalised subjects in the postcolonial metropole. In particular, I will focus on the case of Afghan interpreters who are at risk of Taliban reprisals due to their work for Western armies. Drawing on interviews, participatory observation of political advocacy events and my collaborative work with photographer Andy Barnham, I will trace the ways in which Afghan interpreters - together with their allies - developed strategies to claim protection and rights. 

Sara de Jong is Professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of York (UK) and member of the University of York's Sanctuary Committee. For the past 8 years, she has conducted research on the protection and rights of Afghan interpreters employed by western armies. The research has been published in e.g. Security Dialogue; International Feminist Journal of Politics, Cultural Studies, Journal of International Development and widely covered in international media. With photographer Andy Barnham, she developed the award-winning exhibition ‘Armed with Words: Interpreting the War in Afghanistan 2001-2021’. Her broader research interests include the politics of NGOs and civil society;  (post)colonialism, race and racism; the role of brokers in conflict and migration; and the co-optation of radical politics.