CROSSINGS: THE NEXUS OF MIGRATION AND CULTURE_Conference Queen Mary (London) 1-2 July 2010

CROSSINGS: THE NEXUS OF MIGRATION AND CULTURE
July 1st and 2nd 2010
Laws G.4, Law Building,
Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road,
London E1 4NS

Conference Organizers:

Professor Parvati Nai (Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration) and Dr. Omar García-Obregón (Reader in Poetics of Exile, Censorship and Cultural Resistance - School of Languages, Linguistics and Film).

N.B.: This conference is free to all those who wish to attend. To reserve a place, please contact Queen Mary?s Events Office (events@qmul.ac.uk).
Refreshments and meals will be provided to speakers only. Others attending the conference must make their own arrangements. However numerous options for reasonably priced meals and refreshments are available on campus and nearby.


This two-day conference celebrates the launch of Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture (Intellect Publishers) based at the Centre for the Study of Migration. The conference will cover key thematic and theoretical areas that emerge from the nexus of migration and culture, when examined from diverse interdisciplinary perspectives. Speakers will interrogate questions of cultural migrancy, as well as of cultural identity and representation in the context of migration.
Areas of theoretical enquiry will include borders, diaspora, cultural difference and cultural memory, transnational connections and hybridity from disciplines as diverse as Law, Medicine, Politics, English, Development Studies, Museum Studies, Film Studies, Gender Studies and Anthropology. The conference will further count on the
participation of those working creatively in the culture industry on aspects of migration, so as to foment dialogue between the latter and the academy.

Keynote speakers are Professor Robin Cohen (Professor of Development Studies and Director, International Migration Institute, University of Oxford), Dr. Anne Kershen (Deputy-Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration, Queen Mary) and Professor Yosefa Loshitzky (Professor of Film and Media at the University of East London).

Invited artists include the poets Choman Hardi, John Siddique and others, as well as the photographer/artist/curator Shahidul Alam, founder/director of the Drik picture agency and of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, Dhaka, Bangladesh, as well as of Chobi Mela, the festival of photography in South Asia. Shahidul Alam
will show Under the Shade of the Banyan Tree, a short film that he made on migration and will offer a talk on his work on ?Migrant Lives.? The conference will end with a Poetry Fest, where the invited poets will offer readings and discussions of their work.
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For further details please contact:

Parvati Nair (p.nair@qmul.ac.uk)
Professor of Hispanic Cultural Studies,
Chair of Hispanic Studies,
School of Languages, Linguistics and Film
and Director, Centre for the Study of Migration,
Queen Mary, University of London,
Mile End Road,
London E1 4NS

Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 8317

Film "Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio"

The 14th of May in Italy the film "Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio" will be released.
The film is a free adaptation of the novel by Amara Lakhous (that has the same title). The novel has been a best seller in Italy. It has been published 14 times so far and translated in German, Dutch, English and French. To know more about the novel you can read these interviews with the author:

Suzanne Ruta, ‘Humor is an instrument of combat: a conversation with Amara Lakhous’

Suzanne Ruta, ‘Scheherazade, C’est Moi? An Interview with Amara Lakhous’

Airos Soria Letizia, “Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio. Interview with Amara Lakhous”.


To know more about the author clik here.

The film director is Isotta Toso. To know more about the film and see the trailer clik here.

***PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG ABOUT THIS FILM ADAPTATION IF AND WHEN YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEE IT. I ADVICE ALL TO READ THE NOVEL. IT IS AN INTERESTING GAZE ON ITALIAN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY TODAY SEEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN ALGERIAN. NOTHING BETTER THAN THAT! THANKS AMARA!***

UCL Global Migration Symposia Series

7 June 2010

Mitko Panov (filmmaker)
Film screening “The War is Over” (2009) and conversation with director Mitko Panov

Followed by a Q&A with director Mitko Panov, script consultant Gareth Jones and film critic Nevena Dakovic.

The event is co-hosted by the UCL Mellon Programme and the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Time: 7-10.30pm
Venue: The Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ

About the event: This film by award-winning director, producer and screenwriter Mitko Panov is a fictionalised account of a family exiled to Switzerland during the Kosovo crisis. It is an intimate narrative that explores the experience of forced migration: the fraught decision to leave; the process of integration and adaptation to a new country; the impact on the family; and always, the yearning for homeland. Join us at the Frontline Club, a media club and venue championing independent journalism, for the screening, a panel discussion and a Q&A with Panov, film professionals and critics.

About the director: Mitko Panov was born in Macedonia and now lives and works in Switzerland. He studied Directing at the Polish National School for Film, TV and Theatre in Lodz. He has received a number of international awards for his films including the 1991 Cannes Golden Palm for best short for his reconstruction of the Warsaw ghetto in WITH RAISED HANDS, a special jury award at the Clermont Ferrand film festival 2000, and a Best Balkan Film Award at the Drama Short-Film Festival in Greece. Panov has taught at the New York University Graduate Film Department, the German State School for Film and TV in Munich, and the University of Texas at Austin-RTF. He is a founding member of the New York Film Academy, and Rockefeller, Guggenheim and Sundance Institute Fellow. The War is Over is his feature fiction debut.

Book your place: A limited number of free tickets are available for UCL students and staff. Please email intercultural-interaction@ucl.ac.uk for details. Public booking (£8 early birds, £10 standard) commences in May from The Frontline Club.

UCL Global Migration Symposia Series

13 May 2010

Prof. Elspeth Guild (University of Nijmegen; Partner, Kingsley Napley)
Examining the Relationship between Migration and Security

Discussant: Anneliese Baldaccini, Executive Officer Amnesty International EU

Co-hosted by the UCL Centre for Law and Governance in Europe

Accredited with 1.5 CPD hours
(Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board)

Time: 5.30-7pm; followed by a reception

Venue: Roberts G08 Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre,
Roberts Building, Torrington PLace, London WC1E 7JE

Abstract: Migration and security have a troubled relationship both in law and politics in Europe today. As the UK General Election looms, the debate in the UK around migration - both within the EU and from outside it - seems destined to attract much attention. In this presentation I will examine the multiple meanings of migration in the UK and EU: what does it mean to be a citizen, a foreigner or a migrant, where and why? In this inquiry the question of security becomes central: what security concerns are revealed by the way in which individuals are categorised and to what ends?

About the speaker: Elspeth Guild is an internationally acknowledged expert in the field of European immigration law. She is Professor of European Migration Law at the University of Nijmegen, a Partner at Kingsley Napley and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies. She is also a visiting professor at the LSE in London and at the College of Europe, Bruges. She previously acted as Special Advisor to the House of Lords Inquiry into Economic Migration in the EU, and is involved in training judges in EU law. She is frequently requested to make submissions to parliamentary committees on the subject and she acts as an expert to international organisations such as the European Commission, UNHCR, and the Council of Europe. Her most recent monograph is Security and Migration in the 21st Century (Polity, 2009).

About the discussant: Anneliese Baldaccini is Executive Officer Asylum and Immigration at Amnesty International EU in Brussels. She was formerly a committee specialist for the House of Lords European Union Committee and JUSTICE’s human rights legal officer

Please book your place here.