Call for papers: ETMU Conference 2018
15th ETMU Conference: Vulnerability, resilience and resistance in diverse societies
15-16th November 2018
Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
Conference rationale:
The conference’s goal is to reflect on the meanings, effects and resistances towards vulnerability in the context of mobility, migration and minoritization. Vulnerability, understood as both a universal and constant aspect of everyday life and a particular predicament of differently resilient individuals, has recently become an important concept within migration and minority studies. Survivors of torture, undocumented children or victims of trafficking have been considered as particularly vulnerable, and legislation and societal structures have been considered as agents in the creation and mitigation of such vulnerabilities. However, the understanding of vulnerability as negativity that requires a resilience-building response from the society and state institutions has been criticised as yet another mode of governing individuals in a neoliberal society. In turn, this view has been juxtaposed with understandings of vulnerability as a condition that is productive of or constitutes a radical possibility for the creation of new identities and subjectivities.
The confirmed keynote speakers are Dr. Jenny Phillimore (University of Birmingham, UK), Dr. Julian Reid (University of Lapland, Finland), and Dr. Rebecca Stern (Uppsala University, Sweden).
Abstract submission:
We are now opening the call for papers for the thematic workshops listed below. Please send the title of your presentation, an abstract of no more than 300 words, and your contact information (name, title, organization, and e-mail address) directly to the workshop conveners. Their contact information, as well as the workshops’ programme, can be found behind this link.
There are four workshop slots in the conference program. Each workshop slot is approximately 1.5 hour, including three paper presentations (3×20 minutes, with -/+ 10 minutes reserved for questions).
The main language of the conference is English, but also Finnish and Swedish language presentations are possible in some of the workshops.
Deadlines: The closing date for paper proposals is 15 August 2018. Acceptances of proposals will be announced on 5 September 2018.
Contact: For more information, please contact the organizers at and visit the conference website.
Pre-Conference Doctoral Workshop: A pre-conference workshop will take place on the 14th of November for doctoral candidates wishing to get insight on academic publication from experienced researchers. Speakers to be confirmed.
Workshops
- Migrant Death: Past and Present Community Responses to the End of Life
- Political mobilizations for the rights of migrants and minorities
- A workshop on Research Ethics: power, trust and researcher’s positionality
- Theoretical and empirical approaches to undocumented migrants in Finland
- Constructing vulnerable identities
- Exploring anti-racist resistance and alternatives
- Ageing and vulnerability in diverse societies
- ‘The others’ and vulnerabilities in/of sites of power
- Social and institutional trust, vulnerability and resilience in migration research
- Tightened Immigration Regimes and Everyday (In)Security: Experiences and Strategies of Vulnerable Migrants and Their Families
- Critically Re-thinking Professional Development, Wellness and ‘Diversity’ for Some People in Some Organizations: But Not Others.
- Placemaking through active refugee positions
- Legal aid and legal security