Description

The Centre for Gender and Women's Studies is pleased to announce that the 2010-2011 Seminar Series will focus on the theme of 'Publics and Counter-Publics' and will be convened by Dr Vicky Mason (Politics, Philosophy and Religious Studies) and Professor Maureen McNeill (Sociology).

OCTOBER EVENTS:

Monday 18th October: Public Lecture: Associate Professor Alison Mountz, Syracuse University: "Ontologies of exclusion: islands as detention archipelago," 6.00pm-7.30pm, Management School, Lecture Theatre 8.

Bio: Associate Professor Alison Mountz is Associate Professor at Syracuse University in New York and was recently a William Lyon Mackenzie King Research Fellow at Harvard University. Alison is a political geographer working on transnational migration, asylum seekers and refugees, and border governance. Her new book, Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border (University of Minnesota Press), explores encounters between authorities and undocumented migrants. She has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the Canadian Embassy and was recently awarded a five year CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (USA) to study island detention centres off the shores of North America, Europe, and Australia.

*lecture held in conjunction with funding from the FASS Visiting Scholars Fund, the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies, the CGWS and CeMoRe.

Wednesday 20th October: Workshop with Professor Linda Briskman and Associate Professor Alison Mountz: 'Forced Migration: Challenges and Prospects in the Current Global Context'

1.00pm-5.30pm, Institute for Advanced Studies, Meeting Room 1.

Places are strictly limited so please email Vicky Mason at v.mason@lancs.ac.uk if you would like to reserve a place.

Schedule of Presenters:

1.00pm-2.30pm

Vicky Mason (Politics, Philosophy and Religion): "The discourse of pan-Arab hospitality and the mobility of refugees in the Middle East".

Georgina Firth (Law): "The Detention of Children in Asylum seeking families".

Nina Caspersen (Politics, Philosophy and Religion): "The Armenian Diaspora and its effect on the Nagorno Karabakh peace process".

2.30pm-4.00pm:

Paul Baker (Linguistics and English Language): "When is an asylum seeker not an asylum seeker? Immigration in the UK press 1996-2005: a corpus-based approach".

Ruth Wodak (Linguistics and English Language): "Talking/Writing about Migrants - recent experiences from the Viennese election campaign 2010".

Julie Hearn (Politics, Philosophy and Religion): "'Irregular' Latin American migrants and the struggle for employment rights in London".

4.00-4.15: Coffee/tea Break

4.15pm-5.30pm:

Imogen Tyler (Sociology): "Naked Protest: the reproductive politics of migration".

Bruce Bennett (Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts): "Michael Winterbottom and the cinema of borders".

*workshop being held in conjunction with funding from the FASS Visiting Scholars Fund, the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies, the CGWS and CeMoRe.

NOVEMBER EVENTS

Wednesday 3 November: Seminar: Associate Professor Nicola Pratt (Warwick University) "Women's activism and the War on Terror in the Middle East": 4.00pm-5.30pm, Institute for Advanced Studies, Meeting Room 1.

Bio: Nicola's research and teaching interests are located in the intersections between the politics of the Middle East and feminist international relations theory. In her research, she is particularly interested in the ways in which 'ordinary people' are shaped by and also influence national and international politics - particularly, democratization, conflict and conflict resolution. She has researched and written on democratization, human rights and conflict in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Her research interests link to her activism in the international peace/anti-war movement and she is a regular speaker at various meetings of social movement/voluntary groups as well as contributing regularly to the 'One World Column' (for peace, environment, sustainability and anti-war voices in the UK eastern region). Before entering the world of academia, Nicola lived and worked in Egypt for several years on projects concerning human rights and democratization.

DECEMBER EVENTS

Monday 6 December, Seminar: Dr Maria Holt (University of Westminster), "Liberation or exploitation? Palestinian women and the right to resist," 4.00pm-5.30pm, Institute for Advanced Studies, Meeting Room 3.

Bio: Maria Holt is a Senior Lecturer in the Democracy and Islam Programme, which is part of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. Since completing her PhD in 2004 (on the effects of violent conflict on Shi'i and Palestinian women in Lebanon), she has been working on two research projects, the first focusing on Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon in terms of memory, identity and change, and the other on the impact of Islamic resistance movements on women in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Her other research interests include the Arab-Israeli conflict, Muslim communities in the UK, political Islamist movements in the Middle East, and the final years of the British colonial period in southern Yemen. Besides her academic research, Dr Holt worked for many years as a political lobbyist on Middle East issues.

For further information on any of these events, please contact Vicky Mason: v.mason@lancs.ac.uk