The virtual conference “Encountering Difference, Embodying Boundaries, and Unsettling Borders: Middle Eastern Refugees and Immigrants in the European Union” begins with a panel on “Queer Refugees/Queering Refugee Studies” on October 9, 2020. The virtual conference explores how Middle Eastern refugee and immigrant experiences provide insights into the production of difference, boundaries, and borders by unsettling established understandings of identity, statehood, and territory in and on the edges of the European Union. The first panel places queer refugee experiences and queer refugee studies at the forefront of larger discussions of political asylum, global or transnational perceptions of queerness, and overlapping systems of governance.
Other conference events are a panel on Midnight Traveler: Uncertain Journeys to and through EU (October 16, 2020), Racialization of Refugees in the EU (October 23, 2020), Refugees and the “Crisis” of States: Rethinking Border Regimes and State Technologies in the EU (October 30, 2020), and “Learning, Teaching, and Community-Building with Refugees” roundtable (November 6, 2020). All events will take place virtually from 12:00pm to 1:30pm US Eastern Time. Please register to receive more information and Zoom link. The conference is organized by Dr. Banu Gökarıksel, Dr. Devran Koray Öcal, Betül Aykaç, Suad Jabr, and Lily Herbert (Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Dr. Nathan Swanson (Honors College, Purdue University).