GHI SCHOOL

CHCI Global Humanities Institute 2020:

Migration, Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context

 

PROBLEMATICS 

Rapidly increasing international migrations have radically changed the outlook of contemporary 21st-century societies, producing cases of massive displaced and precarious lives, and bring various impacts upon local communities. These emerging phenomena have attracted critical scholarship both in the humanities and social sciences in recent years.

This CHCI-Mellon Global Humanities Institute (GHI) on “Migration, Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context” invite applications from early career researchers and advanced graduate students from the interdisciplinary humanities and social science studies, including but not limited to literature, history, philosophy, film, audio-visual arts, performing arts, law, anthropology, sociology, journalism, social media, digital platform, and other forms of practitioners.

Through the analysis of documentaries, films, literature, interviews, archives, governmental policies, and cooperation with NGOs/CBOs and artist groups, this intensive program foregrounds the subjective experiences and perspectives of migrants, the violation of the migrants’ fundamental human rights, the citizen’s attitude against them, as well as the government malfunctioning in dealing with these migrants.

The issues of migration and unequal citizens highlight the logistical continuum of biopolitics and governmentality from the colonial to the post-colonial state, from the Cold War Era to the post-Cold War Era, as well as the operation of geopolitical and geo-economic apparatus and zoning politics. Critical logistics can orient the inquiry by emphasizing how the government of populations reaches beyond statistical measure to make new connections between life and work, technology and mobility, and politics and economy in and beyond any region. Logistics organizes the movement of people and goods and asserts its logic across the entire circuit of production, distribution, and consumption. Logistics has also remade the domain of global space and territory, through the operation of zoning politics, such as corridors, digital networks, extraction enclaves, financial districts, and other areas of transfer and exchange. Examining the nexus of migration and logistics offers ways of rethinking the politics of human mobility and the question of unequal citizens that not only reach beyond the logic of integration and identity but also question the standard analysis of post-war area studies.

This GHI will take place from 1st to 10th June 2020 at the International Center for Cultural Studies, NCTU, in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

THEMES  (See LINES OF RESEARCH AND TOPICS)

Our GHI will focus on the following three interrelated themes:

  1. Conditions of Migration and Precarious Lives
  2. Logistics, Geo-economics, Zoning Politics, and Local Infrastructure Initiatives
  3. Theoretical Issues Concerning the Questions of Unequal Citizens

METHODOLOGY

Activities in the institute include panel discussions, workshops, group discussions, field trips, site-specific productions, and round-table discussion with NGOs/CBOs. This GHI will serve as a platform and laboratory of collaboration for all participants to explore and to share perspectives, approaches, and practices on the questions related to migration, logistics, and unequal citizens.

OUTCOMES

The outcomes of the 2020 CHCI-Mellon GHI “Migration, Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context” are available online. They will include:

  1. An online open syllabus of the Institute.
  2. Online database of links of NGOs, activist groups, multiple forms of knowledge production to address related problems in different countries.
  3. Knowledge and skills transfer in an interdisciplinary and multi-media environment.
  4. Audio-visual materials edited from the planning meetings and GHI working sessions.
  5. The publication of edited volume(s) and journal issues.
  6. To establish a long-term consortium for the transnational joint research center for “Migration, Logistics, and Cultural Intervention.”

CONVENING CENTERS AND AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS (See MEMBERS) 

The 2020 CHCI-Mellon GHI “Migration, Global Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Societies” will be delivered by the collaborative consortium formed by five core institutes and seven affiliations from eight different countries.

This consortium brings together scholars from various backgrounds who have worked on multi-disciplinary research projects, including history, visual art, comparative literature, culture studies, gender studies, film and documentary studies, digital storytelling, political philosophy, sociology, anthropology, law, globalization, migration, social integration, religious violence and ethnic conflicts, and so on.

Five core partner institutes, 23 participants:

  1. The International Center for Cultural Studies of National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
  2. The Institute for Culture and Society of Western Sydney University, Australia
  3. The Institute for Population and Social Research & Mahidol Migration Center, Mahidol University, Thailand
  4. The Faculty of the Arts and Social Sciences of University of Malaya, Malaysia
  5. Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academia of Sciences, Poland
  6. The Group for Inquiries and Social Theory, Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam

Seven affiliate organizations:

  1. VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Contact: NGUYEN Tuan Anh
  2. Department of Sociology, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City (VHU-HCM), Vietnam. Contact: NGUYEN THI HONG Xoan, NGUYEN Nu Nguyet Anh
  3. Global China Social Research Hub, Hong Kong University (HKU), China. Contact: PUN Ngai
  4. Center for Cultural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China. Contact: LIM Song Hwee
  5. Department of Sociology, Chung-Ang University (CAU), Seoul, Korea. Contact: SHIN Kwang-Yeong, BAEK Seung-Wook, LEE Na-Young
  6. Law School, Yonsei University (YU), Seoul, Korea. Contact: LEE Chulwoo
  7. School of Education in Applied Art Education, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. Contact: Tammy Robinson

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

We invite applications from early career researchers and advanced graduate students from the interdisciplinary humanities and social science studies, including but not limited to literature, history, philosophy, culture studies, gender studies, film and documentary studies, audio-visual arts, performing arts, law, anthropology, sociology, journalism, social media, digital platform, and other forms of practitioners. Participants are encouraged to conduct various types of innovative knowledge production to explore the issues through academic papers, artistic works, and digital approaches.

The deadline to apply is 31st October 2019. The full call, including requirements and application form, is found here.

Please note that applicants must be currently affiliated with a CHCI member-organization or a university hosting a CHCI member-organization (see CHCI directory).