Ré-imaginer le national et l’appartenance

Network Migration in Europe, Bahçeşehir University (Istanbul), Jewish Museum (Berlin), Zentrum für Türkeistudien und Integrationsforschung (Essen) lancent un appel à contribution pour un colloque international: Bringing Migration and History into the Equation: Re-Imagining Nationhood and Belonging, 5-7 octobre 2011, Jewish Museum, Berlin.

Migration poses challenges to European societies as we know them today;
indeed, the inclusion of immigrants in these societies has become a
controversial issue in most European countries.

Both of these statements are reflected in ongoing debates in numerous
European countries. All too often, immigrants are seen as “Others” when it
comes to constructing national cohesion and patterns of belonging and
identity. The “Othering” of immigrants, perhaps best seen as a process of
social construction and engineering, is closely interrelated with social,
economic, linguistic and, increasingly, religious questions.

However, immigrant inclusion and exclusion cannot be regarded without
reference to historical, cultural and symbolic questions. Thus the analysis
of identity formation and collective identities in multiethnic societies
brings the political scope of identity politics, historical representations
and national narratives to the fore. It entails theoretical and practical
questions of (newly) constituting nationhood and transcultural belonging, as
well as re-positioning ethnic/migrant minorities in the public sphere.

This conference, Bringing Migration and History into the Equation:
Re-Imagining Nationhood and Belonging, will address this intersection of
migration, identity formation and belonging from comparative and historical
perspectives. The emphasis will be on the intersection of history, politics
and commemorative practices/strategies. Case studies as well as theoretical
contributions are welcome. We invite the submission of papers on the
following topics:
– Migrant inclusion and political/historical representation;
– (Re)formation of nationhood and identities under conditions of diversity;
– Writing, teaching and displaying history in immigrant societies;
– Social and cultural practices/strategies of institutions, organisations
and communities to represent migrants and their cultures/histories;
– Transnational and mediated public spheres;
– Borders and belongings: From guest workers and refugees to post-migrants;
– Methodological and theoretical contributions with regard to identity
formation, identity politics and historical representation of migration;

The conference will be composed of:
– an opening panel for a larger audience, including invited spokespeople
from politics and art;
– a keynote opening lecture;
– panels based on academic papers;
– roundtables with short statements to generate new questions and ideas;

Contributions may be either (longer) academic papers or (shorter) input
statements for roundtables, focused on innovative and relevant topics. The
conference will be framed by the 50th anniversary of the German-Turkish
labor recruitment contract in October 2011. Its commemoration raises a
number of questions which will be contextualized in a comparative and
international framework. The conference will take up the case of fifty years
of German-Turkish labor agreements to shed light on more general issues
stated above. A follow-up conference will be held in Essen in spring 2012,
focussing on Lieux de mémoire [places/sites of memory] of migration history.
The October 2011 conference is open to scholars in the Humanities and the
Social Sciences in the widest sense (anthropology, ethnology, geography,
history, law, political sciences, sociology etc.). Abstracts for papers or
contributions to roundtables will be considered on a competitive basis. The
number of speakers for panels will be limited to 25. Limited financial
support for participants to subsidize expenses for accommodation is
available upon request.

Submissions of abstracts (max. 600 words) and a short biographical note (not
more than two pages) including a list of (selected) publications are
welcomed until June 30, 2011. Papers and contributions will be circulated in
advance and must be received by September 25, 2011. Please indicate if you
intend to give a full paper or wish to participate in a roundtable.

For further information please visit
http://www.network-migration.org/workshop2011 (accessible from June 1, 2011)
or contact ohliger@network-migration.org.
Submission deadline: June 30, 2011
Please send your application to ohliger@network-migration.org
The selection committee will select and notify the participants by early
July 2011.

Rainer Ohliger, Netzwerk Migration in Europa e.V., Limonenstr. 24, 12203 Berlin, ohliger@network-migration.org.

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