Workshop: 25-26 October 2024, Berlin
Deadline for abstract submission: 23 August 2024
The concept of new-exile is a contemporary dimension of a multifaceted phenomenon: First, it has an economic-political basis stemming from persecution or conflict. It is directly linked to new modes of exchange and uneven development, being a kind of human resource transference, whose formation and reproductive costs are not paid by the destination countries. Second, the direct causes of forced migration can be identified as serious human rights violations or armed conflict, but these causes can often overlap with or be provoked by economic-political marginalization, poverty, environmental degradation, population pressure and poor governance. Third, it has been experiencing the establishment of a different form of transnational mobilization that transcends the demands of neoliberal capitalism for a transnational labour regime and extends beyond the borders of nation states. The essential characteristic of transnational space is crossing geographic, cultural and political borders, and the multiplicity of involvements; transmigrants develop new spheres of experience and new fields of social relations. These new transnational experiences challenge traditional notions related to migration. This pluri-local mobility can create multiple possibilities for new forms of agencies, which to analyze new-wave displacement would be the stratification of the mobilization.
On the other hand, forced migrations usually occur in waves triggered by specific events affecting specific groups of people. Excluding displacements targeting minorities, there have been five major waves of migration with distinctive characteristics from Turkey to Germany: economic migration –1960s, political migration –1980s, Kurdish political migration –1990s, brain drain –2000s and multifaceted post-Gezi political migration since 2013. This last wave, the new-wave, forced migration/displacement, has periodically increased in severity as its reasons have not disappeared. This displacement movement, with local and transnational articulations, results from a particular conjuncture of the interaction of global and local dynamics. The subject of this violence is the intersectional resistance of those who have stood for freedom, equality, diversity, cultural pluralism, human rights and democracy since the Gezi Resistance in Turkey. Since this new-wave migration –which gained momentum right after Gezi in 2013 and following the cancellation of the 2015 general election, with threads after the declaration of the peace petition in 2016 and coup attempt in 2016– has some distinct fundamental features compared to the previous waves, in order to provide a framework, we define it as new-exile. This multi-layered, multi-wave displacement is referred to as “new-exile” by our Working Group on New-exile Intellectuals (NEWG) with the name of beyond all borders (bAb).
What marks the new-exile from the previous one and what reproduces the forms of displacement in the new country are also related with the “instabilities” that are imposed on every single aspect of professional and daily life. Change in the state and professional and daily life create more precarization for all and the conditions that triggered displacement. Given that even for the settled, the conditions for producing knowledge and arts are made immensely difficult due to temporary/short-term contracts, the already existing insecurity demands adaptation of outsiders/strangers, especially those who engage in counter-knowledge and the arts. The intellectual activities of those groups –journalists, politicians, academics, artists– have been interrupted demonstratively in their own countries. However, this rupture in intellectual activity also has a significant potential in displacement, which “in this metaphysical sense” means “restlessness, movement, constantly being unsettled, and unsettling others”.
Ultimately, the workshop lies in its focus on the potential of displacement “to change the conventional view on intellectual knowledge production relations” and its creating “possibilities for a new form of intellectual subjectivity” based on a 21st century experience of displacement and the heterogeneous nature of the intellectuals forced to migrate from Turkey to Germany. Hence, the proposed call is aiming to address the vulnerabilities, challenges and agencies of displaced intellectuals from Turkey, acknowledging them as political and legal subjects instead of passive or fragile victims. It aims partly deal with the questions of the first topic focus titled “forced migration infrastructures” as well.
Hence, the proposed call is aiming to address the vulnerabilities, challenges and agencies of displaced intellectuals from Turkey, acknowledging them as political and legal subjects instead of passive or fragile victims. It aims partly deal with the questions of the first topic focus titled “forced migration infrastructures” as well.
In this light, the call invites contributions linking four groups of new-exile intellectuals in Germany – journalists, politicians, academics, and artists, to analyze the intersections and divergences between to investigate vulnerabilities, challenges, and agencies in their professional and daily life. The contributions may encompass research delving into the forced migration literature in theoretical, methodological, empirical, and policy objectives by focusing on the transnational dimensions of new-exile intellectuals from Turkey and their agencies.
Potential guiding questions for presentations include (but not limited to):
For the session of journalists and media workers:
- How are the new-wave immigrant / new-exile journalists in Germany re-establishing their agency in regard to their news production experiences in transnational networks and their struggle to survive in Germany? How can we comprehend the relationality of newly exiled media in Germany with the transformation of media globally and platform capitalism?
For the session of politicians and activists:
- How have new-wave immigrants / new-exile politicians and activists were engaged with the existing political communities and Turkish / Kurdish diaspora to sustain or not maintain their political production and daily life in Germany? How has their activism affected the mobilization of political communities and the formation of international networks and institutions in both Germany and Turkey regarding their agency?
For the session of academics, students and universities:
- How does the academic production of these academics provide their agency, and what is the significance is of transnational networks or the founding of new institutions in the formation of this agency? How have the inclusion and externalization practices of the academy in Germany affected new-wave immigrant / new-exile academics regarding sustaining / not maintaining their academic productivity and daily life?
For the session of artists:
- How is the new aesthetic agency (new-migrant/refugee aesthetics) arising from the interaction of art and politics manifested in the artistic production of the new-wave of immigrant / new-exile artists? What is the significance of transnational networks or the founding of new institutions in the formation of this agency?
We are going to produce a joint publication (special issue) as a result of this workshop. After the workshop, we will ask for the submission of the final papers for publication – with the usual possibility that papers may have to be revised for publication within a reasonable amount of time.
Please submit your abstract of up to 500 words by 23 August 2024 to exiledintellectuals@beyondallborders.eu
Please indicate the stream of the workshop to which you would prefer to contribute: Journalist/Media, Politicians/Activists, Academics/Students, Artists
Important Dates:
Deadline for abstracts: 23 August 2024
Notification of acceptance: 20 September 2024
Workshop: 25-26 October 2024
Deadline for final papers: 25 April 2025
We look forward to joining you for an outstanding workshop in Berlin.
The workshop is organized by the NEWG (bAb) as an outcome of a larger research project entitled “New-wave displaced intellectuals in Germany: Agencies, challenges, and vulnerabilities in a transnational context” supported by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
Organizing Committee: Eylem Camuroglu, Melehat Kutun, Hakan Altun
Workshop-Assistant: Esra Karadaş-Ekinci
For further information: www.beyondallborders.eu/