CALL FOR PAPERS: One-Day Workshop on “The Meaning and Practice of Immigration Detention: Perspectives from Legal, Political, and Social Theory”

Location

Friday, May 21, 2009

This workshop aims to provide an academic forum aimed at the discussion of immigration detention in liberal, democratic countries.  This practice raises important questions for researchers from different fields of study: What implications does it have for understanding state power and the future governance of communities? How is this practice located in a wider history of immigration control in liberal, democratic states? Why are immigration detention regimes continuing to expand? And how is it contributing to the reformulation of citizenship? We invite all those who are engaged in research and scholarship of this kind to submit their papers to share ideas, perspectives, and findings.  We aim to approach these questions within an interdisciplinary framework, drawing on an array of approaches, methodologies, and case histories.

We invite papers from researchers and postgraduate students.

The workshop will be divided into four sessions with each session featuring one lecturer and one postgraduate student presenting individual papers examining related topics relevant to our understandings of immigration detention.  Each paper presentation will last 20 – 25 minutes.  Tea and complimentary lunch will be provided.
The goals of the workshop are

•       To expand the existing base of knowledge on immigration detention.
•       To bring together scholars and postgraduate students who might not otherwise have opportunities to meet and share ideas.
•       To identify gaps or inconsistencies in state policies on immigration detention, and to analyze their implications.
•       To disseminate the information discussed through a wide variety of fora, including podcasting, working papers series, and pamphlets.
•       And, potentially, to propose a monograph based on the papers presented and the discussion that followed them.

We welcome the submission of draft papers or extended abstracts to detention.workshop@sant.ox.ac.uk

The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 2, 2010.  
Notification about acceptance will be given within two weeks.

For more information about the workshop, please contact the workshop conveners:
Evelyne Massa (evelyne.massa@sociology.ox.ac.uk) and
Stephanie J. Silverman (stephanie.silverman@politics.ox.ac.uk).