The new AllegraLab article shines a light on our exhibit MOVING THINGS through a conversation between project members and contributers Yuka Oyama, Friedemann Yi-Neumann and Elza Czarnowski.

Read it here!

Lecture by Prof. Paolo Boccagni, University of Trento and presented by project member Friedemann Yi-Neumann.

What do objects do in an asylum centre?

Unpacking forced (im)mobility, (dis)connectedness, inertia and potential futures through the semi-domesticity of refuge

Objects matter for people on the move, even when they stand „still“ or are left behind. Drawing on his four-year ethnography in an asylum centre in Northern Italy, Paolo Boccagni interrogates the faceted meanings and functions of material cultures within dwelling environments that are temporary and less-than-homely by definition.

The lecture will be followed by a discussion with the audience, presented by Friedemann Yi-Neumann.

17 November 2022, 6.30 PM (CEST). Venue: Forum Wissen, Göttingen

Futher details available here

From project member Friedemann Yi-Neumann and the Centre for Global Migration Studies (CeMig):

Paolo Boccagni (Department of Sociology and social research, University of Trento) revisits a way of doing ethnographic fieldwork that has informed several of his research sites, including some related to forced migration, along the fieldwork experience of ERC HOMInG (2016-2022).

Drawing also on a forthcoming edited collection, Migration and domestic space (Boccagni & Bonfanti, Springer, 2023), he briefly illustrates the potential, limitations and dilemmas of fieldwork done after having access, as a guest, in the home of someone else. This is not meant to set any methodological benchmark, but rather as a way to share expertise, experience and food for thought with participants, in an interactive format.

17 November 2022, 2:15-3:45 PM (CEST), Venue: Verfügungsgebäude (VG), Platz der Göttinger Sieben, VG 4.105, Göttingen

Details and information regarding registration on the page linked here.

Our exhibit MOVING THINGS will open soon in Forum Wissen! You can visit the exhibit between 28 October 2022 and 15 January 2023. We look forward to seeing you! The opening ceremony will take place on 27 October 2022 at 6.30 PM at the vestibule in Forum Wissen.

What role do things play in the context of (forced) migration? What promises do they carry in themselves, which emotions, hopes and expectations? How much human dignity is there in a smartphone? The special exhibition MOVING THINGS approaches the topic of (forced migration) through the language of objects. As an experimental arrangement, it inquires into human-thing relationships between materiality, migration, and the museum, and sheds new light on the conditions of flight and migration today. Prof. Dr. Andrea Lauser [Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Göttingen] und Prof. Dr. Joachim Baur [Technical University of Dortmund + Die Exponauten, Berlin] will open the exhibit.

Following the release of our edited volume, we are now excited to announce the release of our second book! Titled "Moving Things", the book is published by Wallstein and is bilingual (English/German).

"What do things say about human existence? What functions do things have in the context of (forced) migrations? How do people change things and things change people?
The authors examine 'Moving Things' in a double sense: Presented are things that have been in spatial movement and tell of this movement, as well as things that move people. This richly illustrated volume takes a new look at experiences, research and debates on (forced) migration."

The book accompanies our exhibition of the same name in Forum Wissen (page in German), open to visitors 27th October 2022 - 15th January 2023!

Click here (page in German) to read more about the book and order a copy for yourself!

We are very pleased to announce that our book titled "Material Culture and (Forced) Migration" has been published by University College London Press.

"Material Culture and (Forced) Migration argues that materiality is a fundamental dimension of migration. During journeys of migration, people take things with them, or they lose, find and engage things along the way. Movements themselves are framed by objects such as borders, passports, tents, camp infrastructures, boats and mobile phones. This volume brings together chapters that are based on research into a broad range of movements – from the study of forced migration and displacement to the analysis of retirement migration."

Click here to read more about the forthcoming book and download it for free!!!

Moving Things - The book accompanying our exhibition will be published by Wallstein in March 2022.

Here is the book preview.

Third HOSTILE TERRAIN 94/FFM event: Deadly Borders and Activist Interventions in the European Migration Space. March 18, 2021, 7pm CET (Language: English)

Online Roundtable with Natalie Gruber (Border Violence Monitoring Network), Charles Heller (Forensic Oceanography) & Jacob Berkson (Alarm Phone)

Moderator: Valeria Hänsel (Border Monitoring Aegean)

The so-called 'Refugee Crisis' of 2015 turned Eeuropean borders into closely surveilled zones, where, simultaneously the migrants' right to move freely has been resticted and violated. Pushbacks in the Mediterranean Sea and at borders across the EU-Turkey migration space caused humiliation, physical injuries and even death of thousands of migrants in recent years. Activists problematize the presence of migrant search and rescue agencies in the migration space failing to intervene and save lives; but they also went further by introducing their own investigations, search-and-rescue actions and political campaigns. In this event, our speakers will talk about what they understand by activism and intervention targeting the border violence across and at the peripheries of Europe. They will also address questions such as how to deploy the visual analysis and mapping in the investigation of migrant deaths, how to collaborate with other activists and in what ways different activists may communicate with each other and increase the impact of strategic action against the (in)action of state agencies.

For further information and registration see here.

Second HOSTILE TERRAIN 94/FFM-event: Online roundtable discussion "Border Perspectives from Afghanistan, Iran & Turkey". Meeting the “Hostile Terrain 94 Frankfurt” contributors. March 9, 2021, at 6pm CET (Language: English)

Online Roundtable with presentations by Ali Sadeqi (artist, Iran); Kemal Vural Tarlan (documentary photographer, Turkey), and Morteza Rezai (graphic designer & artist, Iran)

Further discussants: Mostafa Mazari (photographer, Iran) Reza Heidari Shahbidak (photographer, Afghanistan)

Moderator: Hilal Alkan (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, ZMO)

How is border politics in the Middle East captured by different aesthetics? This online roundtable brings together artists from Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey who contribute to the “Hostile Terrain 94 Frankfurt” show. The presenters, living in the border regions, reflect on the consequences of geopolitical border regimes on countries, communities and personal lives. In their works, they have intensely and creatively visualized borderlands, border crossers, from people fleeing war to nomadic populations, and how conflict and shifting regimes produce im/mobilities. The roundtable will reflect how their work relates to the border realities and the various approaches, genres, and styles they apply and develop in their art pieces and documentaries. Art is not just representation but rather an active form of engagement and can serve as a form of resistance and intervention to these border realities.

For further information and registration see here.

Our colleagues H. Pınar Şenoğuz, Malihé Bayat Tork and Friedemann Yi-Neumann are the organisers of the HOSTILE TERRAIN 94 exhibition in Frankfurt/ Main. The event "From Deserts to Shores: Engaged Archaeologies of Flight and Migration. An American-European Dialogue on Hostile Terrains" on 4 March 2021, 6pm, will feature Prof. Jason de León, Austin E. Shipman, Nicole Smith and Gabriel Canter (University of California/ The Undocumented Migration Project) & Prof. Yannis Hamilakis, Ayşe Şanlı & Darcy Hackley (Brown University). More information and registration for the event here.

Es ist soweit! Wir freuen uns, zu verkünden, dass die Finanzierung für die Ausstellung "Moving Things" steht! Voraussichtlich Ende 2021/ Anfang 2022 (tba) eröffnet sie ihre Tore - als finales Outcome aus unserem Forschungsprojekt!

Wir freuen uns auf dieses neue Kapitel und arbeiten bereits fleißig am Konzept. Stay tuned!

At the beginning of the week, on October 19, 2020, our colleague Friedemann Yi-Neumann gave a lecture at the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period (IZMF)/IMAREAL of the University of Salzburg entitled 'From Object Links to Accumulated Dispossessions. Conditions and Dismaterialization of Forced Migration'. The lecture series will continue until the end of January 2021.

The conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) will take place online this year. Our project is present at the conference with the panel 105 "The Materiality of Migration: From 'bare necessities' to 'promising things'".

"The exhibition "I feel" of the Museum Friedland and the alliance NIEDERSACHSEN PACKT AN in the historical Nissenhütte is dedicated to the artistic processing of flight and displacement. The words "I feel" pervade all works in the exhibition. They stand for emotions, loss, and fear, but also hope.” (Museum Friedland) Here you can take a virtual tour through the exhibition and view the gallery. The team of the Museum Friedland and we as the project team are delighted about your (digital) visit!

We successfully completed our project conference in mid-May. We met our international colleagues online via our conference-page and had very constructive and fruitful discussions. Here you can enjoy the keynote-speeches, download the conference booklet and take a look at the posterpresentations. The next conference is just around the corner: the EASA 2020.

Because of the current global situation, we decided to change the project-conference that is taking place from May 13th to 16th into an online format. In the next weeks the website will be expanded into a platform for the conference and will soon host videos of the keynote talks and virtual meetingrooms.

We are very happy to announce that “The Materiality of Migration: From ‘bare necessities’ to ‘promising things’” has been accepted as a panel for EASA 2020 in Lisbon. The call for papers opens today and will close on 20 January 2020. Andrea Lauser, Sarah Mallet and Antonie Fuhse are the convenors of the panel. Please contact them if you are interested in contributing an abstract for this panel. Please note that paper proposals must be made via the EASA webpage.

Today, our colleague Friedemann Yi-Neumann is invited to the FH St. Pölten in order to discuss the possibilities of examining mobility and migration from a material perspective with scientists of the project "Mobile Things, People and Ideas" (https://www.mobiledinge.at/). There, he will also present preliminary results of our project.

On September 20th, Professor Andrea Lauser introduced our project “On the Materiality of (Forced) Migration” to an interested audience at the Seoul National University. She talked about the research context in Germany, the museum in Friedland, the theoretical background and the aims and ambitions of the project.

For our international project conference "Materializing the Transient: Ethnographies and Museums in the Study of (Forced) Migration" from 14 to 16 May 2020, we are accepting contributions dealing with temporality, methods, emotions, camps or the representation of migration.

Abstracts (up to 300 words) will be accepted by our coordinators until 31 October 2019. Further information here.

We are happy to present a small relaunch today: our website is now bilingual (de|en)! The small shift button is located at the top right of every page, next to the menu. Step by step the not yet available content will be translated.

We are looking forward to and welcome new English-speaking visitors and wish you lots of fun and insightful moments!

Im Rahmen des Stadtlabors "Migration bewegt Göttingen“ laden wir am
27. Juli 2019 von 14 bis 17 Uhr zu einem Workshop zum Thema "Unternehmen Postmigration. Ökonomische Einblicke in die aktuelle Stadtgesellschaft“ im Stadtlabor (Schildweg 1 in Göttingen) ein.

Der Workshop gibt die Möglichkeit, mit migrantischen und postmigrantischen Unternehmer*innen in Göttingen ins Gespräch zu kommen. Was sind ihre Pläne, Zukunftsvisionen und Perspektiven, welche (spezifischen) Erfahrungen haben sie im Laufe Ihrer Selbststänigkeit gemacht?

Kommt zahlreich!

Zu dem Workshop, der am 28.06. im Stadtlabor stattfand, haben wir einen kurzen Bericht verfasst, den Sie hier nachlesen können!

Unsere Teammitglieder Friedemann Yi-Neumann und Hatice Pınar Şenoğuz waren Anfang Juni als Sprecher*innen beim internationalen Symposium
"HomING: Displacement, suspension, projections and achievements in making home on the move" im norditalienischen Trient.

Die beiden haben einen ausführlichen Bericht darüber verfasst, den Sie hier nachlesen können.

Im Rahmen des Stadtlabors "Migration bewegt Göttingen“ laden wir in Zusammenarbeit mit dem FlüchtlingsCafé Göttingen am
28. Juni 2019 um 19 Uhr zu einem Workshop zum Thema "Göttingen als Zufluchtsort: Alltagserfahrungen, Kämpfe um Anerkennung und solidarische Netzwerke“ ein.

Der Workshop gibt Perspektiven Raum, die in den medialen Diskursen wenig Beachtung finden und eröffnet kleine und große Möglichkeiten gegenseitiger Unterstützung, um gemeinsam zu überlegen, was ganz praktisch für ein solidarisches Zusammenleben in Göttingen (und darüber hinaus) notwendig ist.

Wir freuen uns über Ihren/euren Besuch!

Die Planungen für unsere Projektkonferenz im nächsten Jahr laufen bereits: "Materializing the Transient: Ethnographies and Museums in the Study of (Forced) Migration" beleuchtet vom 14. bis 16. Mai 2020 in verschiedenen Panels das Konferenzthema mit dem Fokus auf Methoden, Emotionen, Camps und die Repräsentation von Migration.

Eingeladen sind Vorträge, die auf theoretisch fundierten ethnographischen Fallstudien aus der ganzen Welt basieren.

Der entsprechende Call for Papers wird in Kürze hier veröffentlicht.

Es ist soweit!

Heute stellen wir den Forschungsstand von "Zur Materialität von Flucht und Migration" auf und mit unserer neuen Website vor...
Von nun an informieren wir Sie hier im News-Bereich regelmäßig über Veranstaltungen, Veröffentlichungen und mehr zum Thema Materialität der Migration.

Wir laden Sie ein, auf der Website zu stöbern, sich einzulesen, sich treiben zu lassen und uns ein ehrliches Feedback zu geben!
Manche Bereiche werden noch optimiert.

Wir wünschen Ihnen und uns viel Spaß damit und hoffen auf ein Wiedersehen!