CfPs: Geographies of Migration and Mobility, Loughborough University, 18th-20th July ’16

 

1st International Conference on Geographies of Migration and Mobility (iMigMob) Loughborough University, UK 18th-20th July 2016

The final deadline for submission of abstracts to iMigMob 2016 has been extended to 19th February.

Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP (Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities) and David Bissell (The Australian National University) have been added to the list of keynote speakers.

Call for papers

In the ‘age of migration’, where migration and mobilities are prominent daily and emotive topics on the radar of media, politicians, and wider populations, debating the processes and patterns of sub-national and international movements are imperative.  Yet, a dedicated international conference on these ‘geographies’ of migration and mobility is currently lacking, and opportunities to debate the spatialities of migration and mobility are limited.  Understandings can be enriched by bringing together scholars, whose work deepens knowledge of the movement of people across space, as migration (e.g. Castles, Champion, Cooke, Ellis, King, Wright) or mobility (e.g. Adey, Bissell, Cresswell, Merriman) unfolds within and across neighbourhoods, local, regional, national, continental boundaries and borders.  In proposing this new conference, our aim is to cultivate and share different disciplinary perspectives of migration and mobilities, and to firmly fix the spotlight on the intersections between population and demographic research and the wider social science tradition of work on mobilities.

 

The conference will be organised on the broad themes of:

 

  • Theory: The (dis)connections between migration and mobility, i.e. the differences and similarities in theorising migration and mobility.

 

  • Methodology: How do we research migration/mobility?

 

  • Scale: Situating migration/mobility at, and across, a variety of scales including the local, nation, global and internal/international boundaries.

 

  • Embodiment: Migration/mobility as sensory experiences; migration and mobility as performative, in-the-making, rhythmic, on the move.

 

  • Politics: the politicization of migration/mobilities; migration/mobilities as enabling/empowering.

 

  • Social differences? The role that factors such as time, place, gender, class, religion, play in migration and mobility and how they intersect.

 

  • Communities: Dissecting/unravelling groups and categories of migration/mobility; Diaspora, (home)lands, (dis)connections and the search for belonging.

 

  • Management: Actors (cities, states, agencies,  traffickers, industries) involved in the management of migration/mobilities.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

  • Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP (Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities)
  • Dr David Bissell (The Australian National University, Australia)
  • Professor Russell King (University of Sussex, UK)
  • Professor Clara Mulder (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
  • Professor Gina Porter (Durham University, UK)

Please submit abstracts (maximum 150 words) before 19th February to: d.p.smith@lboro.ac.uk<mailto:d.p.smith@lboro.ac.uk> (Professor Darren Smith).

To register for the conference see: http://store.lboro.ac.uk/browse/product.asp?compid=1&modid=2&catid=70

Early bird registration (£75) will be available until the end of February 2016.  This will include: open coffee/tea facilities, lunches, and conference dinner.  From 1st March 2016, the cost of the registration fee will be £100.

Accommodation is not covered by the registration fee.  Optional B&B accommodation at the conference centre can be booked via registration link.  Other accommodation options in Loughborough include: Travelodge (https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/547/Loughborough-Central-hotel: from £41 per night for double room) and Premier Inn (http://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/leicestershire/loughborough/loughborough.html).

The conference is organised by the Human Geography Research Group of Loughborough University.  We are delighted that the Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University (Professor Bob Allison) will welcome delegates to the conference.  Professor Paul Boyle (Vice-Chancellor of Leicester University) will provide the welcome speech at the conference meal.

The conference is kindly sponsored by: Population Geography Research Group of RGS-IBG; Social and Cultural Geography Research Group of RGS-IBG; British Society for Population Studies (BSPS).

There will be 10+ bursaries to support the attendance of new career, postgraduate, and unwaged delegates (please send email to Dr Sophie Cranston (S.Cranston@lboro.ac.uk<mailto:S.Cranston@lboro.ac.uk>)).