Progressive Geographies

International Conference – 2^nd Call for Paper Sessions – COST Action IS1101 Climate change and migration

Human migration and the Environment: Futures, Politics, Invention

28 June-1 July 2015, Durham University

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Professor David Held (Durham University)

Professor Wendy Brown (UC, Berkeley)

Professor Claire Colebrook (Penn State)

Professor Walter Kälin (University of Bern)

Conference website: http://dogweb.dur.ac.uk/costconference

New submission deadline: 12 December 2014

Submission Information: Submit paper session proposals to climate.migration@durham.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Durham Conference’.

Conference Abstract: Human migration and the environment are two of the most pressing issues of our times. But what is stake when these two phenomena are articulated as a singular relation? By asking this and many other questions, this conference provides a multidisciplinary forum for scholars, policymakers, practitioners and artists to chart out the next generation of research on human migration and the environment. The aim of the conference is to expand the debate on human migration and the environment beyond its current configuration as a problem of causation, law and policy towards a more pluralist debate that acknowledges the multidimensional nature of environmental change and migration. The conference subthemes –  ‘futures’, ‘politics’ and ‘invention’ – will consider issues of knowledge, power and innovation  the context of human migration and environmental change. The conference should appeal to social scientists, humanities and legal scholars as well as to scientists committed to working with and within the social sciences, humanities and law.

Sponsor:  COST Action IS1101 Climate change and migration: knowledge, law and policy, and theory

Conference Organisers:

Dr Andrew Baldwin (Durham University) w.a.baldwin@durham.ac.uk

Dr Francois Gemenne (University of Liège / University of Versailles Saint-Quentin) francois.gemenne@sciencespo.fr

Dr Dimitra Manou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) dimitra.b.manou@gmail.com

Due to a late withdrawal, we have a slot available in the two sessions on ‘Terrain’ that Gastón Gordillo and I are organising at the Association of American Geographers meeting, Chicago, April 2015. If you have a paper that might work, or know someone who might be suitable, please get in touch – the AAG deadline is imminent.

Terrain

Session organisers: Gastón Gordillo (University of British Columbia) and Stuart Elden (University of Warwick)

This session seeks to think critically, theoretically, and politically about the question of terrain. This concept is often thought to be the preserve of physical and military geographers, who usually write about terrain in a straightforward and unproblematic way to describe the forms and textures that define particular spaces. Precisely because the three-dimensional materiality of terrain profoundly affects and constrains mobility, visibility, and action, we think that this concept demands more careful consideration. The contributions in this panel will address several linked questions: How does the materiality of terrain have implications for how we think geographically and politically, and indeed geo-politically? How does terrain help us to conceptualise space as the medium of politics and violence, rather than simply its container? How does thinking terrain as a three-dimensional volume challenge conventional ways of thinking about space? Can we think about terrain as a means of access to wider political-strategic concerns? How should we think about terrain in relation to liquid spaces such as rivers and the ocean or the shifting weather patterns of the atmosphere?