The Forced Migration Research Network (FMRN) has organised an Academic Symposium as part of UNSW's Grand Challenges initiative.

This Academic Symposium is an attempt to rethink how to analyse the spaces and socialites of our lives with a focus on research with refugees and asylum seekers. It certainly requires greater ethical courage as well as deeper theoretical efforts to imagine the affective shifts of perspective that may help us challenge the complexities of contemporary times, especially the peculiar configuration of the relationship between the state and the bodies of refugees played out in punitive policies and damaging political rhetoric.

This Symposium will aim to highlight how relationships that break down perceived boundaries of researcher and researched engender a different politics of affirmation with which the current tenor of public debate on refugees can be challenged.
 

Organisers: 
Associate Professor Claudia Tazreiter 
Dr Nayana Bibile

—

At 5pm, head to UNSW Galleries for a live performance by Vietnamese/Australian artist and UNSW Art & Design PhD candidate James Nguyen and a special viewing of the major installation EXIT.

Through his work, James Nguyen explores the difficulties faced by many migrant communities in their adopted countries. For this performance, Nguyen continues his collaboration with family members to reconstruct the story of his aunt’s failed attempt to flee post-war Vietnam. The performance navigates gender politics within the family as each member retells the story from memory.  

—

Presented in conjunction with 'EXIT' at UNSW Galleries. 

'EXIT' visually correlates global human migratory trends with urgent social and economic issues: increasing urbanisation, economic displacement, political disruption, climate change, natural disasters, and deforestation. 

The Academic Symposium will be followed by a two-day conference on 22–23 February 2017 hosted by the Refugee Council of Australia and UNSW’s Grand Challenge on Refugees & Migrants: ‘Refugee Alternatives: Improving Policy, Practice and Public Support’.
 

Image: EXIT 2008-15. Installation view, UNSW Galleries 2017. Collection Foundation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris © Diller Scofidio + Rengro, Mark Hansen, Laura Kurgan & Ben Rubin, in collaboration with Robrt Gerard Pietrusko & Steward Smith. Photos: Silversalt Photography.