Space Race Bodies
Space Race Bodies
Space, Race, Bodies III: Walls
June 30th-July 1st, 2018
University of Otago/ Te Whare Wānanga o Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand/ Ōtepoti, Aotearoa
Featuring keynote speakers: Associate Professor Leonie Pihama (University of Waikato) and Professor Alexander G. Weheliye (Northwestern University)
Space, Race, Bodies III: Walls is an academic and activist conference that addresses contemporary geographical and cultural practices premised on the construction and maintenance of walls, fences, barriers, and borders of all kinds. The conference is scheduled to take place on June 30th-July 1st, 2018, at the University of Otago. Megan K. Pōtiki from Te Tumu, University of Otago, will take delegates on walking tour on the development of Dunedin in relation to mana whenua in our local landscape.
The construction of walls for security practices related to migration, asylum and refuge, and domestic prisons has significant human rights and social justice implications. Such practices are inextricably tied to social forms of exclusion and discrimination that create barriers to social, political, and economic well-being. The purpose of this conference is to facilitate engagement between academic researchers, criminal justice organisations, and migrant advocates on the local as well as trans-national connections between practices of security and social exclusion as they effect communities of colour, migrants, and Indigenous peoples. The conference invites abstracts, panels, and workshop proposals that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- the human rights implications of security practices, particularly in terms of intersections between border exclusions and disability, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity
- the historical connections between geographies of exclusion and contemporary geopolitical forms of migration management
- alternatives to violent forms of border management and other creative and activist ways of tearing down walls!
- Indigenous sovereignties, climate change, and migration
- carceral politics and practices
- social forms of inclusion and exclusion premised on race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, and class
- barriers to health and education in policy and political communication
- capitalism and socio-economic forms of inclusion and exclusion
- the military-industrial complex
- dataveillance and new technologies of surveillance
- biotechnologies, race, and racisms
- geodata and new technologies of mapping and cartography
- resource commodification and barriers to land and sea for public and Indigenous communities
- media biopower
SRB III builds on the momentum and opportunities enabled by the first two Space, Race, Bodies conferences in publicising and disseminating scholarship and activism on the intersections between geography, racism, and racialisation. SRB I: Geocorpographies of City, Nation, Empire took place in December, 2014, at the University of Otago and featured keynotes included: Professor Joseph Pugliese (Macquarie University), Professor Jacinta Ruru (University of Otago), Professor Susan Stryker (University of Arizona), and Professor Jasbir Puar (Rutgers University). SRB II: Sovereignty and Migration in a Carceral Age took place in May, 2016, and included: Fadak Alfayadh (RISE: Refugees, Survivors, and Ex-Detainees), Associate Professor Stephanie Fryberg (University of Washington), Tame Iti, Moana Jackson, Crystal McKinnon and Emma Russell (Flat Out), Suzanne Menzies-Culling and Marie Laufiso (Tauiwi Solutions), Professor Margaret Mutu (University of Auckland), Teanau Tuiono, Emmy Rākete (No Pride in Prisons), and Annette Sykes. More information on these events can be found at: www.spaceracebodies.com
Interested participants should send 200w abstracts and proposals, including a 50w bio, to space.race.bodies@otago.ac.nz. We are accepting abstracts on a rolling basis until further notice.
The conference venue is wheelchair accessible and caters to differing abilities. The venue has unisex bathrooms and parent spaces.
The full conference program, including abstracts of all talks, can be downloaded here
Conference Committee:
Dr. Holly Randell-Moon
Chloe Banks
Mikayla Cahill
Kerri Cleaver
Alexandra Scrivner