Call for abstracts: Migration Beyond Emergency – Tracing Testimony and Diaspora
In dominant Western European discourse, migration continues to be framed through the language of emergency: as a humanitarian crisis, a geopolitical threat, or an exception to the “norm.” This framing narrows the horizon of analysis and response. From oral testimony and archival recovery, to embodied methods, health justice and beyond, we invite researchers across disciplines to submit papers that challenge migration as a permanent state of emergency. We welcome contributions that explore the lived and collective experiences of migration as sites of knowledge production, cultural formation and political struggle, through the following themes:
- Testimony, oral history and memory in migration research
- Diasporic formations, identity and transnational belonging
- Aesthetic, literary and visual responses to displacement
- The politics and poetics of care in migration contexts
- Abolitionist frameworks in relation to borders, health and incarceration
- Kinship, solidarity and collective organising across borders
- Participatory, creative and decolonial research methodologies
- Intersectional approaches to migration, including, gender, race, religion, disability and class
We particularly encourage submissions from early-career scholars and those working across disciplines.
The symposium will be held on the 28th and 29th of May 2026 at the Humanities Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland.
To submit: please send a 250-word abstract, title, and short biography (max. 100 words) by the 2nd of March 2026 using this Google form: here
For any further enquiries, contact us via email at mbesymposium2025@gmail.com