Institute of Advanced Studies to hold Art and Migration series of events

Loughborough’s Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) will be hosting an exciting series of events around Art and Migration this month.

The newly-established IAS, which is directed by Professor David Deacon, looks to promote an outstanding, interdisciplinary research environment at Loughborough by supporting collaborations with leading international scholars, and it invites high-profile names on campus for exciting formal and informal events.

The latest series, organised by Professor Marsha Meskimmon, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory, will focus on the role of the arts in understanding key issues around migration today.

Outstanding international scholars from institutions such as the Universities of Melbourne and Copenhagen, artists and architects will visit Loughborough as part of the programme of events.

On Wednesday 6 June, Professor Nikos Papastergiadis (University of Melbourne) will deliver a keynote lecture titled ‘Future Museums: L’Internationale and trans-institutional collaboration’.

Professor Papastergiadis will examine both the challenges of representing art in an age of mobility and migration, and the necessities of working with different publics, across multiple media platforms.

The lecture will take place at 11am in the James France Building and will be followed by a networking lunch in the Stewart Mason Foyer. Tickets can be booked here.

A lecture and workshop co-organised by colleagues from lu-arc will explore the theme of Visionary Migrations on Thursday 7 June.

Andreas Vogler, co-founder of Architecture and Vision, will deliver a talk that focuses on future-oriented ideas of migration – such as terrestrial, subterranean, submarine and extra-terrestrial - that emerged in architectural discourse and practice from the mid-20th century onwards.

Afterwards there will be a hands-on workshop where participants are invited to envisage for themselves the positive potential of migration. More information about the event and registering for a place can be found on the website.

In the afternoon of 7 June, IAS will host a screening of Mandeep Samra’s latest film, A New Life in Huddersfield - Memories of Partition and Migration(2018),.

The film documents the experiences of a group of survivors of the Partition of India in 1947, and their subsequent migration to the UK market town of Huddersfield, nestled within the Pennine Hills of West Yorkshire.

The screening is organised in collaboration with the Migrant Memory and Postcolonial Imagination project, funded by Leverhulme and led by Professor Emily Keightley, and will be followed by a discussion panel.

The final event of the Art and Migration series will see IAS welcome the Post-Migration and Culture research group from the Universities of Copenhagen and Southern Denmark for a networking ‘Walkshop’ on Tuesday 19 June.

This mobile research seminar, co-convened by Loughborough University Nationalisms Network (LUNN), will take place throughout the day across the campus. Those who are interested in attending should contacted Professor Marsha Meskimmon at M.G.Meskimmon@lboro.ac.uk.

Professor Marsha Meskimmon said: ‘I am delighted to have been able to contribute to the IAS Migration theme this semester with sessions focused on the arts, where there exists a long-standing interest in the cross-cultural effects of migration and the possibilities of the arts to envisage alternative ecologies of belonging.

“It has been especially enjoyable to work through the IAS, with colleagues from across the campus, on this series of events and we look forward to welcoming our International Fellows in June.”