Writing Migration Conference

In light of the global importance of contemporary migrations of populations, from Latin America to the US and Canada, from North Africa and the Middle East to Europe, and in many other directions, the German Studies Committee of the University of Oregon, has organized a conference titled ‘Writing Migration’. The conference is an interdisciplinary gathering of talks on contemporary migrations (and some historical backgrounds and precedents) in a global context, on the writing of migration, and on the migrations of writing, along crucial South-North, East-West regional trajectories and transitions. Border-contexts considered include: Mexico-US; Africa-Europe; Middle East-Europe.  Contemporary and modern philosophical perspectives invoked include transborder studies, postcolonial studies, deconstruction, media studies, and ordinary language philosophy. All presentations are free and open to the public.

The Writing Migration Conference will take place on May 3rd and 4th, 2018. Sessions will be held in the Knight Library Browsing room. In addition, there is a special talk by Father Alejandro Solalinde planned for 5:30 in PLC 180. The conference is free and open to the public.

Tentative Schedule

May 3rd Knight Library Browsing Room

11:00-11:15 Introduction

11:15-1:00 Session One: Migrations in Reality, Thought, and Text

• Lynn Stephen (Anthropology, UO), “Attacking Family Unity and Racial and Economic Diversity: Ending TPS Status for Central Americans and Haitians and Beyond”
• Thomas Nail (Philosophy, University of Denver), “The Figure of the Migrant” 
• Mushira Habib (Comparative Literature, UO), “Migration in Claudia Rankine’s American Lyric”

1:00-3:00 Lunch Break

3:00-5:00 Session Two: Hybridity of Culture in the Colonial Borderlands

• Pedro Garcia-Caro (Latin American Studies, UO), “From the Stacks to the Stage: Recovering Transborder Latinx Cultural History (1789-2018)”
• Gordon Sayre (English, UO), “The Villasur Massacre of 1720: Nuevo Mexico and la Louisiane collide on the Great Plains”
• Olga Sanchez-Saltveit (Theater Arts, UO), “Tricks to Inherit: Re-Centering a Transnational Translation on Stage”

5:00-5:15 Coffee Break

May 3rd PLC 180

5:30-7:00 Annual Bartolome de las Casas Lecture on Human Rights: Father Alejandro Solalinde**, “The Migrant’s Path/El Camino del Migrante”

**Co-sponsored by the Division of Equity and Inclusion, the Latin American Studies Program, and the Center for Latin American and Latino/a Studies

May 4th Knight Library Browsing Room

9:00-10:30 Session One: Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage: Migration’s Alienations

• Dorothee Ostmeier (German and Scandinavian, UO)
• Michael Najjar (Theater Arts, UO)
• With actors: Penta Swanson (Mother Courage), Chris Arreola (The Cook), Dashaun Valentino-Vegas (The Chaplain), and Madeline Williams (Kattrin).

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Session Two: Contemporary Representations of Migration in Northern Europe

• Sonja Boos (German and Scandinavian, UO), “‘My Escape /  Meine Flucht:’ Techfugees, Smartphones, and the Construction of a Personal Documentary.”
• Benjamin Mier-Cruz (German and Scandinavian, UO), “Brown-Eyed Boy: Being Swedish and Straight Enough in Berlin in Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s Everything I Don’t Remember“

12:30-2:30 Lunch Break

2:30-4:15 Session Three: Migrations of Image and Figure

• David Martyn (German, Macalester College), “Grammatical Metaphor? Writing as Migration”
• Jeff Sacks (Comparative Literature, UC Riverside), “Language Demands: Motion and Pain in Wittgenstein and La’abi”

4:15-5:00 Closing Discussion

This event is organized by the Department of German & Scandinavian, and co-sponsored by:

• the Department of Romance Languages
• the Department of Philosophy
• the Department of Comparative Literature
• the Department of Latin American Studies
• CLLAS: Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies
• the Global Studies Institute
• the UO College of Arts & Sciences
• the Oregon Humanities Center