Triptych #2: Techno-migrant

TRIPTYCH #2: TECHNO-MIGRANT

With Leo Lucassen, Alison Killing & Sandra Ponzanesi

Debate / Fri 25th Jan / 8 pm - 9:30 pm

Join our Full Circle Debate to hear a thought-provoking discussion with three prominent thinkers, and contribute to a dynamic conversation between our speakers and other engaged audience members.

A few years back in the media, the pictures of newly arrived migrants posing for selfies as soon as they reached European soil, left most watchers and readers perplexed for a moment. Somehow the image of people fleeing war or poverty seemed at odds with carrying a smartphone along the way. Technology has been a game changer for modern migration. Smartphones, geolocation, social media and Whatsapp are some of the tools no person on the move would want to venture anywhere without. Physical borders have become technologically pointless. And yet new technologies also translate into tougher security measures, new or higher walls, and a thicker European fortress.

The second rendez-vous of our series dedicated to open borders and the future of migration explores technology’s transformative impact on borders and world migration, with a unique mix of speakers spanning the fields of architecture to politics. Join the discussion.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Leo Lucassen is Professor of Global Labour and Migration History and director of the International Institute of Social History (IISH) at Leiden University. His research focuses on global migration history, integration, migration systems, migration controls, gypsies and the state, state formation and modernity, and urban history. He strides to stimulate interdisciplinary research on migration history and contribute to the public debate on migration.

Alison Killing is an architect and urban designer. Her latest project, Migration Trail, skilfully encapsulate real migration stories in maps and data, audio and social media. Her work focuses on engaging people with the man-made environment and how communities can be involved in shaping it. She does this through exhibitions, film-making, events, and journalism. Alison studied Architecture at Cambridge University and Oxford Brookes, and also holds a Master's degree in Development and Emergency Practice. She is a TED Fellow and WIRED Innovation Fellow.

Sandra Ponzanesi is Professor of Gender and Postcolonial Studies at Utrecht University. Her focus of research includes postcolonial studies, transnational feminist theories, European migration studies, conflict studies, and visual culture among other subjects which she approaches from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. She is currently principal investigator of CONNECTING EUROPE - Digital Crossings in Europe: Gender, Diaspora and Belonging. The project aims to investigate the relation between migration and digital technologies, and in particular how the ‘connected migrant’ contributes to new forms of European integration and cosmopolitan citizenship.