Social and Labour History News

CfP: Making Cities Visible. Global Perspectives on Urban Image-Production and -Circulation (19th-20th centuries)

3 months ago
Organiser: European Association of Urban History (EAUH) (Christina Reimann, University of Gothenburg; Malte Zierenberg, Humboldt-University Berlin) Postcode: 08001 Location: Barcelona Country: Spain Takes place: In person Dates: 02.09.2026 - 05.09.2026 Deadline: 22.10.2025 Website: https://www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/  

We invite paper proposals for our session at the European Association of Urban History Conference (EAUH) on the relationship between urbanity and visual culture. The panel explores the urban imprint of the making of a ‘society of images’ by examining international visual discourses and local peculiarities, and by challenging Western-centric views on urban modernity.

 

Making Cities Visible. Global Perspectives on Urban Image-Production and -Circulation (19th-20th centuries)

Ever since the age of printmaking, cities have been centres for the production and distribution of images of all kinds - not only for local, but also for translocal and transnational markets and publics. However, the late 19th century marked a turning point in several respects as photography revolutionised the production and distribution of photo-realistic images. Since then, we have been living in a society of images. This panel examines the specific urban imprint of this global development toward modern visual cultures, which took shape in different ways at different places. We consider the changing ways in which cities became represented and looked at with the industrialization of image production and circulation, taking into account the integrating effects of international visual discourse as well as local peculiarities. Our panel explicitly invites studies on non-Western and peripheral/non-metropolitan urban contexts so to contribute to global historians’ challenging of Western-centred narratives of ‘urban modernity’.

The panel’s six to seven papers explore the relationship between urbanity and visibility in Europe and beyond. They engage with the multifarious ways in which urban photographic iconography shaped (visual) discourses on (urban) modernity. In doing so, it also examines the different forms of invisibility that formed the flipside of hypervisibility, which often centred on specific forms of particularly metropolitan urban life. We take into special account that representations of modern urban space emerged in a context of changing gender identities and, especially, of transforming ideas of femininity that were embodied through an increased female mobility to and through cities worldwide.

Among the questions the papers may address are:
What conditions and contexts did cities provide to shape this new imaging of the world?
Which (urban) actors shaped this development?
Which specific status did metropoles earn in this co-construction process of urban modernity and visual discourses?
How did other places beyond the metropolises foster the mediazation of the present?
What democratizing and which socially marginalizing effects did this process have?
Did the urban contexts of image production shape a specific urban bias in the description of society, which has persisted as a pattern of interpretation right up to the present day?

Paper proposals are to be submitted by October 22 via the official conference website (https://www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/) by choosing Session 62 Main Session. ‘Making Cities Visible. Global Perspectives on Urban Image-Production and Circulation (19th and 20th centuries)’

Contact

Christina Reimann (christina.reimann@gu.se)

CfP: Lodging practices and networks of work, migration, and sociability. Long term perspectives across European cities and beyond (1500-present)

3 months ago

Call for Papers, deadline 22 October 2025

Organiser: European Association of Urban History (EAUH) (Hilde Greefs & Jasper Segerink, University of Antwerp; Rosa Salzberg, University of Trento).

Location: Barcelona

Country: Spain

Takes place: In person

Dates: 02.09-2026 - 05.09.2026

Deadline: 22.10.2025.

Website: https://www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/sessions/#session39

 

We are inviting papers for our session on the historical practices of lodging at the European Association for Urban History Conference. The session explores how lodgers and their hosts have shaped their urban environments, and vice versa. We welcome papers from any geographical region, roughly from 1500 to the present.

 

Paper proposals are to be submitted before 22 October via the conference website, and by selecting Main Session 39.

 

Title: Lodging practices and networks of work, migration, and sociability. Long term perspectives across European cities and beyond (1500-present)

 

Keywords: lodging, migration, housing, urbanisation

 

Synthesis: Lodging has long shaped urban networks through mobility, labour migration, and social exchange. Yet its history remains fragmented. This session explores the long-term evolution of urban lodging, tracing its changing forms and roles in cities across Europe and beyond.

 

Long Abstract: Lodging has long played a crucial role in urban networks, fostering mobility, labour migration, and social exchanges. In its broadest sense, lodging includes the renting of rooms or beds for short or interim periods in the houses of hosts, either commercial or private. The practice has a long history and has taken various forms, yet crucially we lack insights into its continuities and changes across time and space. Historical research on lodging has often remained fragmented, either confined to specific regions or periods, or footnoted within broader studies of housing, migration, and urban poverty. This session aims to explore urban lodging as a historical phenomenon over the long term, examining its changing roles and functions in urban networks across Europe and beyond.

The session is guided by the leading question: How have lodgers and their hosts shaped urban environments, and how have these environments, in turn, shaped lodging practices over time? Addressing this question requires an examination of lodging not only as a form of housing but as an integral part of urban networks of work, migration, and sociability. In so doing, the session contributes to recent debates seeking to structurally incorporate transient populations and non-normative household constellations in urban histories. Given the conference’s theme, the session approaches lodgers and their hosts as crucial agents in broader urban networks, and aims to foster comparative perspectives from different regions and time periods to identify similarities and differences.
We particularly welcome papers addressing the following themes:
• Lodgers and their hosts as agents in urban labour and migration networks
• Lodging environments: their materiality and spatial organisation
• Social profiles and dynamics: gender, ethnicity, and class
• Lodging and urban crises: housing shortages, labour crises and forced migrations
• Lodging beyond Europe: case studies from colonial, industrial, and postcolonial contexts
By bringing together scholars working on different geographical and temporal contexts, this session aims to foster new comparative perspectives on the long-term history of lodging. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to broader debates on urbanisation, migration, and housing, while situating lodging at the intersection of cities’ networks and their transnational histories.

Nachhaltigkeit von Revolution & Jubiläum (German)

3 months ago

Trier/Germany

Veranstalter: Organisiert durch den Friedhof der Märzgefallenen/Paul Singer e. V.; In Kooperation mit Karl-Marx-Haus Trier (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung), Archiv der deutschen Frauenbewegung (Kassel), Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz, Bundesarchiv-Erinnerungstätte Rastatt, Historisches Museum Frankfurt. Die Tagung wird durch die Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte gefördert.
Veranstaltungsort: Karl-Marx-Haus Trier (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung) Brückenstraße 10, 54290 Trier
Gefördert durch: Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte
PLZ: 54290
Ort: Trier
Land: Deutschland
Findet statt: In Präsenz
Vom - Bis: 09.10.2025 - 10.10.2025
Website: https://www.revolution-1848.de/netzwerk/jahrestagung-2025/

Die Tagung steht im Zeichen der Nachwirkungen der Revolution 1848/49 in Bezug auf Arbeiter:innen- sowie Frauengeschichte. Außerdem bietet ein aktives Workshop-Panel viel Raum, um das vergangene 175. Revolutionsjubiläum in Deutschland auszuwerten und Lerneffekte für Erinnerungspraxis und historisch-politische Bildungsarbeit zu diskutieren.

Spannende Beiträge aus Dresden, Lörrach, Alzey, Wien, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Mainz, Kaiserslautern und Heidelberg bieten neue Forschungseinblicke und tiefgründige Analysen zur Erinnerungskultur und Demokratiegeschichte.
Nachhaltigkeit von Revolution & Jubiläum

Das vom Friedhof der Märzgefallenen initiierte Netzwerk kommt am 9./10.10.2025 zu seiner 5. Jahrestagung zusammen.

Die bisherigen Konferenzen in Rastatt (2021), Frankfurt am Main (2022), Berlin (2023) und Leipzig (2024) konnten neue Forschungsperspektiven und Vermittlungsmethoden zur Revolution 1848/49 und der Demokratiegeschichte zusammenbringen. In diesem Jahr widmen wir uns in Trier der Frage, wie nachhaltig dieses historische Ereignis Gesellschaft und politische Kultur beeinflusste. Gleichsam wollen wir auch die Nachhaltigkeit unserer heutigen Erinnerungskultur an die Revolution diskutieren und nehmen das 175. Jubiläum (2023) in den Blick.
Programm

DONNERSTAG 09.10.2025

Eröffnung
13.00

PANEL 1 - Ein nachhaltiges Jubiläum?

Input - Erkenntnisse und Lerneffekte des 175. Revolutionsjubiläums identifizieren
13.15-13.45
Kerstin Wolff, Archiv der deutschen Frauenbewegung

Workshops
13.45-15.30
Modul 1 // Orte & Dimensionen
Tina Schnabl, DenkMalFort e.V.,
Die Erinnerungswerkstatt Dresden
Modul 2 // Out Reach
Volker Gallé, Kulturverein Alzey und Umgebung e.V
Modul 3 // Blinde Flecken
Jan Merk, Dreiländermuseum Lörrach

Kaffeepause
15.30-16.00

Ergebniszusammenführung & Diskussion
16.00-17.00

Dinner
18.00-19.00

PODIUMSDISKUSSION
Landesgeschichte & Demokratiebildung in Rheinland-
Pfalz
19.00-20.00

Moderation: Kai-Michael Sprenger, Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte; Cornelia Dold, Haus des Erinnerns – Für Demokratie und Akzeptanz Mainz
Tim Müller, Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz
Tino Leo, Schauspieler und Histotainer

FREITAG 10.10.2025

Gemeinsames Konferenzfrühstück
09.00-10.00

Eröffnung
10.00

PANEL 2 - Nachhaltig revolutionär? Perspektiven aus der Frauenbewegung nach der Revolution 1848/49

Kerstin Wolff im Gespräch mit:
Johanna Gehmacher, Universität Wien
Susanne Asche, Kulturamt Karlsruhe

PANEL 3 - Nachhaltig revolutionär? Arbeiter:innengeschichte(n) nach 1848/49

Vortrag 3
Christian Decker, IPGV Kaiserslautern
Vortrag 4
Walter Mühlhausen, ehem. Friedrich Ebert-Gedenkstätte Heidelberg
Moderation: Jürgen Schmidt, Karl-Marx-Haus Trier (FES)

Abschluss und Ausblick
12.15

Lunch
12.30

Regionales Abschlussprogramm
(optional)
13.30-15.00
Kontakt

Ausstellungs- und Gedenkort Friedhof der Märzgefallenen
Kontakt: Johann Gerlieb (gerlieb@paulsinger.de)

Lecture series "Im Umbruch! Unsere Gesellschaft" (German)

3 months ago
Stuttgart/Germany   Veranstalter: Württembergische Landesbibliothek Ausrichter: Württembergische Landesbibliothek Veranstaltungsort: Konrad-Adenauer-Straße 10 PLZ: 70173 Ort: Stuttgart Land: Deutschland Findet statt: In Präsenz Vom - Bis: 28.10.2025 - 25.02.2026 Website: https://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/fileadmin/user_upload/die_wlb/Kulturprogramm/Veranstaltungen/WLB_Bevoelkerungswandel_Programm_DD_online.pdf  

Der gesellschaftliche Wandel hat viele Ursachen. Eine wichtige ist die demografische Entwicklung: In Deutschland und anderen westlichen Ländern wird die Bevölkerung kleiner, älter und vielfältiger. Das hat Auswirkungen auf Politik, Arbeit, Wirtschaft, Bildung, Migration und Mobilität.

Im Umbruch! Unsere Gesellschaft

Wenn die Babyboomer-Generation durch die Generation Z abgelöst wird, stellt sich die Frage: Was bedeutet das für die Arbeitswelt? Ist die soziale Absicherung noch gewährleistet? Wie kann die Wirtschaft genug Fachkräfte finden? Und in welchen Lebenswelten wird sich die junge Generation in Zukunft zurechtfinden? Wird sie im politischen System ausreichend vertreten? Und hat sie gerechte Chancen in der Bildung?

Der Wandel der Bevölkerung ist eine große Herausforderung, aber auch eine Chance für die Politik. Die Vortragsreihe möchte die Möglichkeiten dieser Veränderungen erkunden und die gesellschaftlichen Fragen, die daraus entstehen, diskutieren. Wie kann Migration so gestaltet werden, dass sie den Bedürfnissen aller gerecht wird? Wie kann die Vielfalt aus verschiedenen kulturellen und familiären Hintergründen als Vorteil genutzt werden, statt sie zu populistischen Zwecken zu missbrauchen? Auch Stadt und Land verändern sich. Wer lebt wo, und wie gut geht es den Menschen dabei? Die Bedingungen in Städten und auf dem Land können aktiv gestaltet werden. Was empfiehlt die Wissenschaft dazu?

Weniger, älter und vielfältiger – dieser demografische Trend wird unser Zusammenleben in Zukunft stark beeinflussen. Expertinnen und Experten aus Wissenschaft und Forschung werden in ihren Vorträgen die gesellschaftlichen Folgen des Wandels aufzeigen. Wir laden Sie ein, darüber nachzudenken und mitzudiskutieren.

Programm

Di, 28. Oktober 2025, 18 Uhr
Bevölkerung im Wandel. Ein Überblick über Ursachen, Folgen und Trends
Dr. Elisabeth K. Kraus (Wiesbaden)

Do, 13. November 2025, 18 Uhr
Keine Zeit mehr für die Arbeit? Arbeitszeitoptionen als Chance und Herausforderung für Beschäftigte und Betriebe
Prof. Dr. Ute Klammer (Duisburg-Essen)

Mo, 8. Dezember 2025, 18 Uhr
Demografie macht Politik. Repräsentation, Populismus, Perspektiven
Prof. Dr. Marc Debus (Mannheim)

Do, 15. Januar 2026, 18 Uhr
Hochqualifiziert und äußerst skeptisch? Wie qualifizierte Zuwanderer Deutschland erleben
Prof. Dr. Claudia Diehl (Konstanz)

Di, 10. Februar 2026, 18 Uhr
Ist die Formel vom „Weniger, älter, bunter“ zu revidieren? Neue und alte Facetten des demographischen Wandels in ländlichen Räumen
Dr. Annett Steinführer (Braunschweig)

Mi, 25. Februar 2026, 18 Uhr
Eltern – Kinder – Bildung Wie Herkunft und Familie Chancen prägen
Prof. Dr. Sandra Buchholz (Hannover)

CfP: Netzwerktreffen Oral History 2026 in Halle (Saale) (German)

3 months ago

Halle (Saale)/Germany

Veranstalter: Institut für Geschichte, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg PLZ: 06099 Ort: Halle (Saale) Land: Deutschland Findet statt: In Präsenz Vom - Bis: 26.03.2026 - 27.03.2026 Deadline: 19.10.2025  

Am 26. und 27. März 2026 ist das Institut für Geschichte an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg Gastgeber des Netzwerktreffens Oral History 2026. Wie jedes Jahr freuen wir uns über Einreichungen und Vorschläge für Vorträge, Projektpräsentationen oder Kurzvorstellungen, die die ganze Bandbreite der Oral History abdecken.

 

Netzwerktreffen Oral History 2026 in Halle (Saale)

Besonders willkommen sind Beiträge zu folgenden vier Themenschwerpunkten:

Politisierung der eigenen Lebenserfahrung
Übergeordnete gesellschaftliche, wirtschaftliche und politische Verhältnisse spiegeln sich in den individuellen Erfahrungen, Erzählungen und Lebensläufen – und zugleich prägen subjektive Perspektiven den gesellschaftlichen Blick auf historische Prozesse. Im Rückblick auf das eigene Leben werden Erfahrungen auch vor dem Hintergrund gegenwärtiger Debatten, Diskurse und Tendenzen gedeutet. Wir möchten darüber diskutieren, wie sich Fremd- und Selbstdeutungen von Biografien im Laufe der Zeit verändern und welche Rolle verschiedene politisierte Erfahrungen einnehmen können.

Arbeit und Identität
Erwerbs- wie auch Care-Arbeit prägen einen Großteil unserer Lebenszeit und Biografien. Insbesondere eine berufliche Tätigkeit, das Arbeitsumfeld und die zugehörige soziale Gruppe tragen wesentlich zur Identitätsstiftung bei.

Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage, wie Berufsgruppen in unterschiedlichen historischen Kontexten ihr Selbstbild konstruier(t)en. Wie erlebten Menschen beispielsweise Selbstständigkeit, Leiharbeit, Frühverrentung oder Arbeitslosigkeit und welche Auswirkungen hatte das auf ihre lebensgeschichtliche Erzählung? Gingen berufliche Brüche mit Identitätsverlust einher? Und welches Bild entwarfen andere gesellschaftliche Akteur:innen wie beispielsweise Staat und Parteien demgegenüber?

Forschungsethische Fragen
Dieser sehr offen angelegte Schwerpunkt rückt die Verantwortung von Forschenden in den Fokus. Neben vielen anderen Themen könnte beispielsweise der Umgang mit traumatischen Erinnerungen oder unterschiedlichen politischen Einstellungen in der Interviewsituation selbst diskutiert werden. Ein Schlaglicht soll auch auf die Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung geworfen werden. Wie beeinflusst der Einsatz von KI im Forschungsprozess die Nähe zur Quelle? Inwieweit sind die FAIR-Prinzipien und Privatsphäre/Datenschutz vereinbar?

“Hinhör-Gruppen”
Auch in diesem Jahr möchten wir Raum für kollegiale Beratung geben. In moderierten Kleingruppen, den sogenannten „Hinhör-Gruppen“, können Fragen der Interview- und Forschungstätigkeit am Praxisbeispiel diskutiert werden. Wir laden dazu ein, gemeinsam die von Ihnen eingereichten Audio- und Videomitschnitte anzuhören/anzusehen und zu interpretieren. Hilfreich wäre hierbei ein kurzes Abstract, welches das jeweilige Fallbeispiel sowie die zentrale Frage- oder Problemstellung skizziert.

Diese Schwerpunkte sind wie immer als Vorschläge zu verstehen und können durch andere Themen ergänzt werden. Zusätzlich zur Einreichung thematischer Beiträge oder Abstracts für die kollegiale Beratung bzw. „Hinhör-Gruppen“ besteht – wie bereits in den vergangenen Jahren – für Netzwerke, Institute, Projektverbünde und vergleichbare Einrichtungen die Möglichkeit, sich im Rahmen eines kurzen Zeitslots von zehn Minuten vorzustellen und darüber hinaus mit einem Informationsstand vor Ort präsent zu sein.

Bitte melden Sie sich bis zum 19.10.2025 bei Stefan Müller (stefan.mueller@fes.de) oder Johanna Hohaus (johanna.hohaus@geschichte.uni-halle.de) und geben Sie an, ob Sie sich für einen Vortrag, eine Hinhör-Session, eine Kurzpräsentation oder einen Infostand bewerben.

CfP: ‘A Window of opportunities:’ Newspaper press during perestroika – analyses and field reports

3 months ago
Organiser: PD Dr. Franziska Schedewie, University of Heidelberg; Prof. Dr. Bradley Woodworth, University of New Haven / Yale University; Max Weber Forum Helsinki Location: Max Weber Forum Helsinki Founded by: Co-funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (Project SCHE 1997/2-1) and the Max Weber Network Eastern Europe Postcode: 00100 City: Helsinki Country: Finland Takes place: In presence Dates: 26.02.2026 - 27.02.2026 Deadline: 25.10.2025  

This workshop aims to investigate the ‘window of opportunities’ for independent newspaper journalism that opened up during perestroika. We would like to invite newspaper analyses as individual case studies covering all areas previously pertaining to the Soviet Union, but especially the – multilingual – peripheries.

 

‘A Window of opportunities:’ Newspaper press during perestroika – analyses and field reports

Helsinki, Max Weber Forum, Finland, 26 – 27 February 2026

In the late 1980s, freedom of the press was upheld by reform policy and the law in the Soviet Union for the first time since the brief period between the February and October Revolutions of 1917. As Communist Party rule and information monopoly no longer exerted its enormous power over media and society, perestroika developed a life of its own.

In a new spirit of optimism, the population of the Soviet Union took itself, its history, its present and future to task. Journalists were among the first to test and overcome the limits of what could be said and done; along the way, they also reinvented themselves. Established newspapers and magazines changed their image and content and became more interesting to the readers. New, independent publications could be initiated, especially after the ‘Law [of 1990] on the Press and Other Mass Media.’

In March 1991, there were over 8,000 registered newspapers and magazines in various languages, half of which were newly founded. Many newly launched newspapers were probably not even counted. In this arguably decisive period of the late Soviet Union, every newspaper had its own history, circumstances and actors. Together, as media in a highly mediatized society, they surely shaped the era of late reform and early transformation, its images, moods and perceptions. They highlight perestroika as a history of communication in a multi-layered process.

While a body of research literature on the press does exist, there remains room for further exploration. Developments were far from uniform or confined to the two ‘capitals.’ Besides an evolving political spectrum, journalistic initiatives across the multiethnic Soviet Union remain largely unexplored. There is a great need for individual analytical case studies, especially at the grassroots level and the multiethnic periphery. Also, many journalists who were active at the time can report first-hand on their experiences.

This workshop aims to investigate the ‘window of opportunities’ for independent newspaper journalism that opened up during perestroika. It seeks to contribute to an exploration of the history of this period with a focus on its beginnings, thus avoiding equating reforms with ‘collapse’ a priori, but also paying attention to dynamics that are usually only associated with the later transformation. For journalism in the national republics, the approach of independence in 1991 certainly colours how the perestroika period is viewed. Yet we also encourage analyses of how press practices themselves changed. We would like to invite newspaper analyses as individual case studies covering all areas previously pertaining to the Soviet Union, but especially the – multilingual – peripheries.

We are interested in the following fields of questions:

Structures and agency
- Newspapers as ‘contents,’ but also ‘objects,’ according to modern media theory, with technical, economic, infrastructural aspects taken into consideration
- Everyday lives, and risks, of journalists; continuities and change in the editorial offices (including experience reports from the field)
- Newspapers ‘in dialogue’ with their readers: target groups (including previously underprivileged/excluded/stigmatized groups, minorities), networking activities
- Newspapers and local/regional politics
- Press coverage of religion, religious PR and journalism
- International contacts
- Quantities and qualities: newspaper distribution, reception, and impact as ‘shapers of and being shaped by society’

Temporalities
- Future expectations in the turbulent times of the ‘restructuring’
- Media events
- Historically inspired tasks and agendas of all kinds in newspapers: the newspaper as ‘archive’ and medium for restoring knowledge of (one’s own hitherto subdued, repressed) culture, but also: the newspaper as medium for extremist positions, delusions of former/future grandeur, etc.

Visual aspects of perestroika newspapers
- Use of ‘language without text,’ through changes in layout, images, colour, etc.
- Photos and photographers, illustrators: their lives, and risks, working for or in collaboration with newspapers (including field reports)

The workshop is intended to bring together two groups:
- contemporary press practitioners who worked in the Soviet Union at the time, especially members of the local presses
- researchers at all stages of their academic careers from across different disciplines

Both are invited to submit a paper proposal (400 words) and a short CV, including current affiliation and contact details, by 25 October 2025 to Franziska.Schedewie@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

Applicants will be informed of the acceptance of their proposal by 15 November 2025.
The working language of the workshop will be English. A publication of contributions is planned with a preliminary submission deadline of 31 May 2026.
The organizers will provide accommodation in Helsinki for the duration of the workshop. Travel costs will be reimbursed after the workshop depending on budget availability with early career researchers, participants from post-Soviet states (excluding Russia and Belarus) and scholars in exile taking precedence.

The workshop will be held in Helsinki and is co-funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (Project SCHE 1997/2-1) and the Max Weber Network Eastern Europe. It is co-organized by PD Dr. Franziska Schedewie (University of Heidelberg), Prof. Dr. Bradley Woodworth (University of New Haven / Yale University) and the Max Weber Forum Helsinki.

Kontakt

Franziska.Schedewie@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

CfP: Urbanities of Belonging: Emigres from East Central Europe in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Cities

3 months ago
Organiser: Prof Markian Prokopovych; Dr Katalin Stráner (Faculty of Geography and History, University of Barcelona) Location: Faculty of Geography and History, University of Barcelona Postcode: 08001 City: Barcelona
Country: Spain Takes place: In presence Dates: 02.09.2026 - 05.09.2026 Deadline: 22.10.2025 Website: https://www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/call-for-papers/  

This session seeks to examine the ways in which emigres from East Central Europe found new homes in cities outside of the region and how they were linked through urban networks and emerging identities in the period between the Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The geographical scope includes but is not limited to Europe.

 

Urbanities of Belonging: Emigres from East Central Europe in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Cities

This session at the forthcoming international conference of the European Association for Urban History (EAUH), Barcelona, 2-5 2026, seeks to examine the ways in which migrants from East Central Europe found new homes in cities outside of the region between the Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The geographical scope includes, but is not limited to, Europe. While the networks of political exiles, intellectuals and other groups and their, often transitory, lives abroad have been largely analysed on national and international scales, it is often overlooked that these networks were often inter- and intra-urban, as was the sense of belonging to their new and old homes. It was through such urban networks that new professional and private relationships were established, and new centres of migrant activities emerged. The session also seeks to pay attention to the maintenance of links to home cities and the ways such links facilitated and/or restricted migrants’ adaptation to the new urban environments. To what extent were nineteenth- and twentieth century cities linked through migrant networks of political, intellectual, academic, cultural and leisure activity? How regional and/or international were such groups in each city and who did they include apart from the migrants themselves? How urban was the migrants’ new sense of belonging and did emigration turn some of them into true urbanites? How did such processes intersect with status, nationality, gender and age?

Kontakt

markian.prokopovych@durham.ac.uk and katalin.straner@newcastle.ac.uk

Call for Volunteers: Fighting Erasure: Digitizing Gaza's Genocide & War on Lebanon project

3 months 2 weeks ago

The Fighting Erasure: Digitizing Gaza’s Genocide & the War on Lebanon project seeks experienced and dedicated volunteers to join our team. We are seeking experienced digital archivists, web designers, fundraisers, trainers, grant writers, copy editors, graphic designers, and videographers who are able to commit regular hours on an ongoing basis to the project. At this time, we are not able to provide training.

 

See below for more details on each position.

 

The Fighting Erasure project operates with almost no funding and much institutional obfuscation. It is made possible by the deep commitment of a global network of volunteers led by Palestinian and Lebanese steering and management teams. We are a network of diverse academics, archivists, heritage professionals, memory workers, engineers, programmers, content creators, educators, administrators, artists and writers who have been workingly tirelessly since October 8, 2023 to provide any and all support, resources and labour required by people on the ground to rescue, recover, preserve and safeguard archives, heritage, land and life in the face of the expanding Zionist colonization and genocide. 

 

The Fighting Erasure project is volunteer run, locally driven, community based, and uncompromisingly anticolonial and decolonial. It refuses the displacement of archives and archival sovereignty, as well as the prevalent paternalistic and racist models of global heritage interventions. Our basis of unity for all volunteers and project collaborators is the Call to Archive Against Genocide.

 

Housed at the Archives & Digital Media Lab, the project operates through a network of organizations, communities, and individuals that is global in scale and locally grounded. By becoming a volunteer, you join a diverse and welcoming community of knowledgeable and principled people imbued with a culture of mutual care and support who believe deeply that liberation is inevitable and another world is in the making.

 

Volunteers have the opportunity to become Fellows at the Archives & Digital Media Lab. Please indicate in your application if you would be interested in becoming a Fellow as well. Check out our current Fellows here.

 

Read more about the project on the website of the Archives & Digital Media Lab here, and in the following: 

 

 

  1. Digital Archivist (Volunteer) - min. 5 years experience required (10-20 hours a month).

Description: Catalog and preserve digital collections to ensure long-term accessibility and security. Apply metadata standards and digital preservation best practices to create a comprehensive Digital Archive on the Gaza Genocide & War on Lebanon stewarded by the Archives & Digital Media Lab. The digital archive documents the events, data, media, and audiovisual content from Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine, as well as South Lebanon starting from October 7, 2023. This archive will serve as a detailed record for future reference, analysis, and historical documentation. Learn about the project here. 

Requirements: 

  • Experience in organizing, preserving, and managing digital collections created for long-term access.

  • Expert knowledge in metadata standards and best practices (e.g. ISAD(G), RiC, RAD, Dublin Core, PREMIS)

  • Minimum 3 years of experience in digital archiving, digital curation, or similar roles.

  • Expertise in preservation workflows and handling sensitive archival material.

  • Knowledge of long-term digital storage and preservation tools and methods.

  • Experience and knowledge of social media archiving and web archiving tools preferred.

  • Experience working with or in Indigenous and Global South contexts is preferred.

  • Arabic language proficiency is preferred.

 

  1. Archival & Records Management Instructors & Mentors (Volunteer)  min. 3-5 years experience required. 

Description: Provide free workshops and trainings, help develop curriculum, serve as a mentor for training participants, and/or help coordinate educational opportunities for archivists, librarians and heritage professionals in Palestine, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Global South where there is conflict, war, and/or a lack of archival training and education opportunities. As part of the Fighting Erasure project, we coordinate and run free, bilingual and accessible educational and training programs to increase the capacity and resilience of people on the ground in safeguarding and recovering archives. Training topics range from records creation, functional classification, and archival & arrangement: to emergency response, disaster mitigation, and archival first aid; to digitization, digital curation preparation and ARM tools/technologies software/system.  Learn about our training program here. 

We seek individuals who are able to provide one or more of the following:

  • Experience in university or professional settings developing and delivering trainings or courses related to any archival and records management topics.

  • Ability to provide support to community and cultural heritage teams in protecting and recovering archival materials during war.

  • Capacity to deliver trainings on war and disaster preparedness, emergency response, and best practices in archival first aid.

  • Experience providing guidance on physical and digital collections recovery.

  • Minimum 3-5 years of practical, hands-on experience in archival emergency response and recovery is preferred.

  • Experience in training or teaching workshops is strongly preferred.

  • Background in supporting community or cultural heritage institutions, especially in resource-limited or high-risk contexts, is preferred. 

  • Experience working with or in Indigenous and Global South contexts is preferred.

  • Arabic language proficiency is preferred.

 

  1. Fundraising Specialist (Volunteer) - min. 3-5 years experience required (10-20 hours a month).

Description: Design and implement fundraising campaigns, including donor outreach and engagement with community and international organizations for the Fighting Erasure project. Build relationships with community, advocacy and international organizations to meet and exceed funding goals. Learn about the project here. 

Requirements: 

  • Experience leading donor engagement and fundraising initiatives.

  • Experience coordinating campaigns, grant applications, and partnership opportunities.

  • Minimum 3-5 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising or development.

  • Proven success in meeting or exceeding fundraising goals, with evidence of past campaigns or secured funding.

  • Skilled in using donor management systems (CRM), crowdfunding platforms, and digital fundraising tools.

  • Familiarity with international organizations, community-based initiatives, and fundraising networks.

  • Experience working with or in Indigenous and Global South contexts is preferred.

  • Arabic language proficiency is preferred.

 

  1. Grant Writer (Volunteer) - min. 3 years experience required (10-20 hours a month). 

Description: Research funding opportunities, write grant proposals and prepare proposal packages for the Fighting Erasure Project. This role involves close collaboration with ADML team members. Learn more about the project here. 

  • Experience in researching and writing funding proposals.

  • Experience with academic, community or international organization contexts. 

  • Minimum 3 years of experience in grant writing with a successful track record.

  • Proficiency in donor databases, grant portals, and online submission platforms.

  • Skilled in budget preparation and reporting requirements.

  • Ability to research funding opportunities.

  • Arabic language proficiency is preferred.

 

  1. Web Designer (Volunteer) - min. 4 years experience required (10-20 hours a month). 

Description: Designing, updating and maintaining the ADML website. This role also includes implementing basic security measures to safeguard the site and ensure a smooth user experience. Learn more about our website here. 

  • Experience in designing and maintaining a professional or social movement, user-friendly website.

  • Minimum 4 years of experience in web design and site management.

  • Proficiency in HTML/CSS, WordPress, Google Sites, and basic SEO.

  • Experience managing website hosting, domains, and site security.

  • Familiarity with performance optimization and troubleshooting.

  • Arabic language proficiency is preferred.

 

  1. Copy-Editor (Volunteer) - min. 3 years experience required (10-20 hours a month). 

Description: Edit and proofread written materials for clarity, accuracy, and consistent style for grant applications, promotional materials and other content relating to the Fighting Erasure Project and the Archives & Digital Media Lab. Learn about the project here. 

  • Review, edit, and proofread materials to ensure clarity, accuracy, and consistency of style.

  • Experience with advocacy, grant, and academic writing.

  • Minimum 3 years of professional experience in writing, copy-editing, or publishing.

  • Arabic language proficiency and translation experience is preferred.

 

  1. Digital Video Producer (Volunteer) - min. 3 years experience (10-20 hours a month).

Description: Plan, manage, and execute livestreams and digital broadcasts for events and campaigns, ensuring seamless production. Film, edit, and deliver polished video content for storytelling, social media, and community engagement for the Fighting erasure project and the Archives & Digital Media Lab. Learn more about the project here. 

  • Minimum 2 years of professional experience in livestreaming/video production/editing.

  • Proficiency in livestreaming, video broadcasting and video editing tools.

  • Experience coordinating livestreams, event coverage, and creating social media-ready video content is required.

 

  1. Content Creator (Volunteer) - min. 3 years experience (10-20 hours a month).

Description: Produce engaging digital content for social media, newsletters, and campaigns for the Fighting Erasure Project and the Archives & Digital Media Lab. Create and plan long-term dynamic social media strategies and monitor online engagement.  Learn about the project here.  

  • Develop engaging written, visual, or multimedia content for digital platforms.

  • Experience with creative storytelling and social media campaigns.

  • Minimum 3  years of experience in content creation or social media strategy.

  • Strong record of producing content tailored for different social media platforms. 

  • Proficiency in social media strategy.

  • Experience with archival, cultural heritage, or advocacy-focused projects is preferred.

  • Arabic language proficiency and translation is preferred.

 

9. Graphic Designer - min. 3 years experience (10-20 hours a month). 

Description: Produce digital and graphic materials for event promotion and organizational programming. Develop strong and cohesive branding for the Fighting Erasure Project and Archives & Digital Media Lab.

  • Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, or other editing & design tools. 

  • Experience distilling complex information into digestible materials for public use.

  • Experience maintaining brand consistency across design materials and platforms.

  • Experience with archival, cultural heritage, or advocacy-focused projects is preferred.

  • Arabic language proficiency is preferred.

 

10. WordPress Developer (Remote/Freelance) - min. 3-5 years experience required. 

Description:  We are looking for a skilled WordPress Developer with strong backend and integration capabilities. The ideal candidate should have proven experience with WordPress development, including child themes and custom plugin development. Arabic language proficiency is required. 

Hands-on experience with:

  • Custom Post Types (CPTs)

  • Custom Taxonomies

  • Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) or similar tools.

  • Ability to build custom importers from Excel/CSV files.

  • Experience with WP All Import Pro or building custom queue/batch import systems is a strong plus.

  • Capability to design and implement custom REST API endpoints with support for filters (e.g., age, gender, governorate, date range), pagination, and caching.

  • Experience integrating interactive maps using Leaflet (open source) or Mapbox GL, including marker clustering and GeoJSON support.

Strong focus on performance optimization:

  • Database indexing

  • Query optimization

  • Object caching / Transients

  • Lazy loading of images

  • Solid understanding of security and access control:

  • Admin-only roles for import

  • File validation & field sanitization

  • CSRF protection using nonces

  • Proficient in: PHP 8+, MySQL, JavaScript (ES6), HTML/CSS

Experience with the following are preferred:

  • ACF JSON and WP-CLI for batch operations

  • PostGIS or using POINT/Spatial Indexing (if needed later)

  • Advanced media handling: downloading & attaching external images to the media library

  • Internationalization (i18n): RTL support and UI alignment with design

  • QA/testing: Unit/Acceptance testing, error logging, and retry mechanisms

 

Deadline: September 15, 2025

 

Applications: Please send a cover letter and CV as a single PDF to comms@archiveslab.org.

CfP: Migrant labour resistance and struggles in agriculture

3 months 2 weeks ago

The proposed volume focusses on migrant farmworker resistances in the last five years. It seeks contributions that examine the roots and forms, evolution and role, consequences and prospects of solidarities, alliance building, and resistances against the exploitation, control, and precarization of racialized migrant labour. The volume's larger goal is to provide a platform for dialogue among academics, activists, artists, migrant workers and indigenous populations on practices of resistance and self-advocacy to reclaim labour rights and proposealternatives to agricultural racial capitalism.

Description

The present era is witnessing profound changes in global production and consumption of food. In some respects, this is a continuation of earlier trends. However, in several significant ways, restructuring of global agro-food systems in the contemporary moment appears to be completely new. Concentration and centralization of capital within agriculture is now being reinforced through intensified global competition, innovations in biotechnology and transportation, and the social organization of labor. As a result, we result as daily evidence rapid transformation of agriculture, including decline of subsistence agriculture and proletarianization of independent farmers.

In parallel, these transformations especially in the last five years have unfolded within what can be described as a “polycrisis”: the co-existence and interweaving of multiple crises such as an acute socio-economic crisis, ecological crisis, persisting racial injustice, health-care crisis, the growth and the rapid spread of far-right populism, and the breakdown of international order. Together, these constitutes a colossal crisis of crises that exposes the enduring strength of the capitalist system.

Migrant agrarian workers have been a structural element of the new global agro-food production system, in which they, together with autochthonous women, constitute the most exploited and vulnerable group within agro-business. COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the indispensability of migrant farm workers in sustaining global agro-food production while revealing the deep contradictions in migrant labour regimes – these migrant agrarian workers were classified as “essential” to national food security, yet they were rendered disposable through restrictive border controls and temporary migrant labour programs.

Scholarship emerging in the wake of the pandemic has laid bare the role of the state in facilitating the expropriation and exploitation of migrant labour and, thereby advancing the spread of agricultural racial capitalism that Manjapra (2018) defines as agriculture production derived from the unfree labour of racialized farmworkers. Research has also documented heightened consciousness among migrant farmworkers during this period, which has resulted in solidarities, mobilization of cross- racial and cross-national alliance building, unionizing, and informal and everyday resistances enacted against their exploitation and racialized migrant precarity.

There was a widespread anticipation that the momentum of such resistances and solidarities would persist, post pandemic, to generate momentum to contest bordering regimes and propose alternatives against labour exploitation in the agriculture sector.

The proposed volume focusses on migrant farmworker resistances in the last five years of the polycrisis. It seeks contributions that examine the roots and forms, evolution and role, consequences and prospects of solidarities, alliance building, and resistances against the exploitation, control, and precarization of racialized migrant labour. The volume's larger goal is to provide a platform for dialogue among academics, activists, artists, migrant workers and indigenous populations on practices of resistance and self-advocacy to reclaim labour rights and propose alternatives to agricultural racial capitalism. Among other, the volume invites submission on questions such as:

  • Has the promise of heightened consciousness among migrant workers and local populations, and, with it, a promise of tangible changes within the global agri-food regimes led to change, either positive or negative?
  • How has migrant farmworker resistance evolved or adapted?
  • What new alliances have emerged or brought in new social actors to facilitate change?
  • How has agricultural racial capitalism responded to labour resistance and solidarities and what new strategies of labour exploitation and discipline developed against racialized migrant farmworkers?
  • What social infrastructures or local factors facilitate or prevent struggles, including social policies and the role of migrants within them?
  • What role does spatiality have in shaping migrant resistance? Do certain spaces of agrarian production inhibit or facilitate collectivities of resistance or not?
  • What role does/do temporality-ties such as those of seasonal migration or agricultural season have in contouring migrants’ resistance, solidarities and alliance building?
  • Are certain forms of agricultural work more prone to collective action?
  • Has the current polycrises led to new forms of gender subordination? In what ways have new forms of gender sequencing and gender segregation in agricultural work shaped consequences for labour resistance?
  • Analyze whether struggles produce only immediate material gains (e.g., better salary, housing) or do these generate political and theoretical critiques (e.g., critique of racism, neoliberalism, agricultural racial capitalism)?
  • Is there a link/alliance between such migrant resistances with struggles for social rights within specific national contexts and against structural and systemic racism and discrimination? With greater consciousness about exploitative migrant labour regimes and racial discourses, are these linked horizontally to similar struggles across countries or labour sectors?
  • In relation to transnational collaboration of resistance against migrant labour exploitation, what factors have facilitated alliance building and what strategies have worked (or not).
  • How is organized top-down resistance led by unions or other structured groups different than organic, grassroots mobilizations led by migrant workers and how do these fare in effectiveness of strategies and coalition building?

Significantly, the volume endeavours to examine resistances that either failed or got co-opted by agricultural racial capitalism. What led to the failure of migrant resistance or in the erosion of solidarity among migrant farmworkers? What lessons do such instances hold for racialized migrants, migrant rights groups and activists as they mount struggles against exploitative migrant labour regimes?

Call for Chapter Submissions

With the edited volume’s aim to provide critical insights, diverse perspectives, and creative approaches about migrant farmworker resistance, we invite scholars, researchers, writers, and creative artists to contribute original works, empirically grounded studies, and theoretical essays to the volume. We encourage non-traditional scholarly contributions that include creative performing arts, expressions of resistance such as poetry, short stories, photo essays, or participatory creative research methods such as photovoice.

Submission process and deadlines

If you are interested in contributing, please submit an abstract of 500 words, a 200-word biographical note with current affiliation and email address, and an updated CV (all as Word docs),

by 30 September 2025.

Please include “migrant agricultural workers resistance CfA” submission in the subject line. The abstract should state the research question addressed in the proposed article, outline the theoretical framework, and state the article’s main argument.

Please email the abstract and all queries to Eriselda Shkopi (eriselda.shkopi@unive.it), Reena Kukreja (reena.kukreja@queensu.ca), and Fabio Perocco (fabio.perocco@unive.it)

Editors
  • Dr. Reena Kukreja, Queen’s University, Canada
  • Dr. Eriselda Shkopi, Ca’ Foscari University, Italy
  • Dr. Fabio Perocco, Ca’ Foscari University, Italy
Proposed publisher
  • Routledge (The Mobilization Series on Social Movements, Protest, and Culture)

 

Keywords

migrant labour, resistance, agriculture

CfP: Temporary Migration (20th –21st Centuries): Spaces, Regulation, and Imaginaries (English French and Arabic)

3 months 2 weeks ago

Recent migration research has recently adopted intersectional approaches by disputing age  categories, Gender, and class, which have long been pivotal  to the study of migrant populations. Despite being the focus of sustained scholarly inquiry, these domains continue to exhibit notable  limitations particularly in areas where migrants navigate conditions of “illegality” and where state authorities frequently respond with various forms of repression, including violence, detention,  stop-and-search practices, and police surveillance. This symposium will thus serve as a platform  for scholars and practitioners to exchange methodological insights into short-range mobility and  to explore innovative approaches to researching migration contexts. Furthermore, it will provide a  critical space to examine how funding agencies shape, influence, and/or potentially limit migration  research agendas.

The Laboratory for the History of Mediterranean Economies and Societies  (HESM) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Tunis, and  Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (CAREP) jointly organize an  international Conference on:  Temporary Migration (20th –21st Centuries): Spaces, Regulation, and  Imaginaries

May, 7-8-9, 2026

Argument

Existing databases and bibliographic resources on migration reveal that scholarly inquiry within  the humanities and social sciences has tended to coalesce around two principal areas of focus: the  conditions surrounding migrants’ departure, and the processes of reception and/or exclusion in  host societies. Nevertheless, geographers have been at the forefront of mobility data analysis, the  development of “spatial interaction” related theories and the bridging of spatial domains through  conceptual frameworks such as the migratory field (Simon, 1981) and migratory circulation  (Charef, 1999; Arab, 2009). The multifaceted nature of migration—rooted in the intricate interplay  of economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological factors—is investigated across diverse  temporal and spatial contexts. While they remain challenging, such dimensions are concomitantly examined, given that individual mobility patterns shape both personal trajectories and the  geographies traversed. Hence, mobility is analyzed through both national and transnational lenses  (Rosenthal, 1999; Mabrouk, 2010; De Wenden, 2016; Schmoll, 2020; Ben Khalifa, 2021; Regnard,  2022). Furthermore, migration studies invite critical interrogation of foreign policy frameworks  and societal transformations (De Wenden, 2016; Lacroix, 2023, 2024; Abbondanza, 2024). Within  this discourse, media representations and political rhetoric play a pivotal role in shaping public  opinion by constructing narratives that inform collective imaginaries, often contributing to the  entrenchment of migration within predominantly negative paradigms. The study of human mobility is substantially critical for migratory flows.

Recent migration research has recently adopted intersectional approaches by disputing age  categories (El Miri, 2021; Jamid, 2022; Ait Ben Lmadani, 2020), Gender (Moujoud, 2008; Ait Ben  Lmadani, 2020; Arab, 2018; Schmoll, 2020), and class (Peró, 2014), which have long been pivotal  to the study of migrant populations. Given the prominence of migration in public discourse, media representations are replete with traces of Human mobility offering valuable material for analyzing  social imaginaries (Schor, 1985; Gastaut, 2000; Mills-Affif, 2004; Wihtol de Wenden, 2022).  Despite being the focus of sustained scholarly inquiry, these domains continue to exhibit notable  limitations particularly in areas where migrants navigate conditions of “illegality” and where state authorities frequently respond with various forms of repression, including violence, detention,  stop-and-search practices, and police surveillance. This symposium will thus serve as a platform  for scholars and practitioners to exchange methodological insights into short-range mobility and  to explore innovative approaches to researching migration contexts. Furthermore, it will provide a  critical space to examine how funding agencies shape, influence, and/or potentially limit migration  research agendas.

Temporary migration runs counter to sustainable or long-term settlement projects. One  prominent form is circular migration, characterized by repetitive, temporary movement. The  European Union notably promotes such a model as an alternative to irregular migration and as a  development key driver. Temporary migration spans a multitude of situations, such as seasonal  migration (e.g., Gastarbeiter in Germany) (Arab, 2018; Rass, 2023), student and trainee migration  (Jamid), migration of workers and skilled labor under fixed-term contracts contributing to the  precariousness of migrant labor (Khaled, 2023). Temporary migration has a distinct temporality, characterized primarily by its repetitive nature and, to varying degrees, by precarity and  vulnerability. Further, Political exile (Diaz, 2021; Dulphy, 2021) emerges as a temporary condition  that profoundly shapes the life trajectories of both refugees and their descendants. As Bianchi aptly  states (2005): “To exile oneself is not only to change location but also for consciousness itself to  tend toward exile.” Finally, transit situations also fall within the scope of temporary migration  studies” (Alioua, 2013; Regnard, 2022).

Temporary migration can be approached both as an analytical category and as a set of social  practices (Triandafyllidou, 2022), highlighting the gap between state-imposed administrative  classifications and migrants’ lived experiences. Abdelmalek Sayad recognized the dual nature of  migration: the temporary nature (de jure) and the lasting nature of the immigrant’s stay with “an  intense feeling of the temporary.” which is often accompanied by: “an intense feeling of  provisionality.” Sayad thus posited that the immigrant’s situation: “lends itself, not without  ambiguity, to a dual interpretation: at times, as though to deny the increasingly permanent nature  of migration, one retains only the immigrant’s inherent de jure provisional status.; at other times,  conversely, as if to refute the official identification of the immigrant’s status as temporary. "It has  been rightly emphasized that immigrants increasingly tend to ‘become permanently embedded in  their condition as immigrants, " (Sayad, 1991, p. 14).

A thorough critical examination of temporary migration necessitates a decolonial analytical  lens-- one that questions both the historical and structural continuities of colonial power. This approach calls for the deconstruction of colonial legacies rooted in racialization, securitization,  and in the privileging of certain populations. Analyzing migration temporalities through a  decolonial lens enables us to move beyond multiple forms of ethnocentric simplification and to  expose the enduring links between colonial power relations and postcolonial tensions, both in  border zones and in countries of transit and settlement.

Moreover, the construction of collective memory related to these forms of mobility unfolds within  a rather complex temporality—rooted in the past albeit extending into contemporary political  debates and identity claims. Highlighting the diversity of memories and the contexts in which they  emerge (Teulières et al., 2015) prompts us to focus on the role of temporary migrations in processes  of heritage-making and “désinvisibilisation” of previously marginalized histories. “Rendering  immigration history visible is inextricably intertwined with contemporary migration issues.  Numerous museum and archival exhibitions employ artistic mediums to engage with such  concerns, thereby eliciting diverse critical reflections” (Bertheleu et al., 2018).

Temporary migration operates within a framework of migratory utilitarianism" (Morice, 2001)  embedded in European state policies, which helps explain how migration is shaped according to  labor needs in specific sectors such as tourism and agriculture. Such a Utilitarian migration policy  is underpinned by two guiding core priciples: “Firstly, wherever and whenever relevant and  necessary, and in the appropriate quantity, states will import ‘high-quality’ (skilled or elite  migrants). Secondly, should a need for low- or semi-skilled labor also arise, such labor will be  deliberately confined to a time-limited contractual basis.” (Morice, 2001). Southern neighboring  countries have internalized such a logic in their own migration policies, largely due to the  authoritarian nature of their political regimes.

A system of “precarity competition” (Loiseau, Lasacaux, Mesini, 2024) is thereby implemented  in the employment of foreign labor, particularly evident in cases of Moroccan women recruited  for strawberry harvesting in Huelva (Arab, 2018), migrant labor in tomato farming in southern  Italy (Filhol, 2022), and in seasonal work in arboriculture in the Crau region of France (Mesini,  2022). 

This structurally embedded precarity is further intensified for female migrant workers, whose  labor often sits at the intersection of economic marginalization and gendered vulnerability. Such  is blatantly visible in seasonal migration schemes—such as those involving Moroccan women in  the Spanish strawberry fields —where the temporality of labor is narrowly defined and tightly  controlled, reinforcing an endemic instrumentalization of women’s bodies in service of highly  specific and extractive economic needs (Arab & Azaitraoui, 2024).

Of Further significance, temporary migration is embedded not only within individual  projects but also within family strategies aimed at distributing economic risks and securing  relatively stable income streams amid local economic uncertainties (Stark and Bloom, 1985). The  decision to migrate temporarily is not always the outcome of a preconceived, rational, and stable  plan. Drawing on Howard Becker’s work (1963), particularly his concepts of “life sequences” and  the construction of “deviant careers” (Outsiders), temporary migration is perceived as an evolving contingent process. Migrants typically do not set the duration of their stay beforehand, rather, the  temporality of migration develops through experience, shaped by interactions, emerging  opportunities, and constraints. Motivations to prolong or alter migratory trajectories often arise  retrospectively, I so much as they are informed by accumulated experiences within the host  context.

Focusing on irregular migration highlights a temporality shaped by security policies, which  can obstruct migratory trajectories, result in the detention of migrants, or lead to deportation to  places of origin. The sociology of bifurcations (Grossetti, 2006) underscores the role of  contingency and unpredictability in social trajectories. Migratory engagement, whether regular or irregular, can be triggered by unforeseen events or specific contexts, prompting a reassessment of  initial plans. This perspective encourages viewing temporary migration as an open-ended process,  wherein the duration is not predetermined but shaped by unexpected biographical bifurcations  often linked to personal, economic, or political changes.

Although temporary migration has received comparatively less attention compared to more  permanent forms of migration, it has nevertheless been the subject of extensive individual and  collective reflection (Arab, 2018; Baby-Colin et al., 2017; Donnan, Hastings, et al., 2017; Jacobson  et al., 2022; Regnard, 2022). Several key research trends can be identified as follows:

  • Studies on pre-defined mobility projects (e.g., migration of workers and professionals,  as well as students, interns and trainees) whose stays are initially framed by fixed durations.  ∙ Research on refugees whose exile is conditioned by political situations in countries of  origin and transit, as well as by dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in countries of  settlement.
  • Work on temporary labor regimes examining how labor needs—particularly in sectors  such as agriculture, tourism, and other seasonal industries—generate circular or short-term  migration flows involving both skilled and unskilled workers.
  • Studies of migratory trajectories and their intermediary stages where migrants may  pause temporarily -- either in anticipation of further movement or in strategic response to  security barriers such as border enforcement. Such intermediary stages involve complex  logistical arrangement and are frequently subject to state surveillance of non-nationals.

Since the First World War, states have progressively developed and refined mechanisms for the  identification and control of foreigners, reflecting a broader logic of bureaucratic governance and  surveillance (About, Denis & Torpey, 2005). The intensification of mobility regulation has become  a hallmark of both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, shaped by the rise of nationalist  ideologies, the consolidation of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, and the proliferation of  political dissent. Since the late 1990s, the European Union has positioned itself as a central actor  in the externalization of migration governance, extending its regulatory reach beyond its territorial  borders and reshaping mobility dynamics across its peripheries which are transformed into zones  of delegated migration management underpinned by security-oriented logics across the  Mediterranean and in bordering regions, thereby reaffirming restrictive logics that prioritize  containment and deterrence (Balleix, 2022; Billet et al., 2022).

By centering our analysis on the 20th and 21st centuries, this symposium intends to analyze  temporalities of migration through the prism of increasingly institutionalized mechanisms of  control and surveillance. The growing politicization of migration-- alongside sustained violations  of human rights-- calls for a thorough rethinking of how temporal regimes/ temporality shape migratory dynamics.

Within this framework, it is essential to undertake a critical inquiry into the practices of a wide  range of actors—including public institutions, international organizations, and civil society—and  to assess the extent to which these practices are informed and conditioned by the temporalities of  migrants’ presence. Whether oriented toward inclusion, capacity-building, or securitization, such  interventions remain inextricably tied to the temporal frameworks within which mobility is  managed.

Building on this premise, migrants residing on a temporary basis often develop distinct modes of  engagement with host societies, that diverge markedly from those of long-term or permanently  settled populations. Public policies that overlook the provisional nature of certain migratory  trajectories—or that operate within temporal logics misaligned with migrants’ lived experiences  — risk generating ineffective and even counterproductive outcomes.

While the Mediterranean space remains an area of focus in our analysis, we have deliberately  chosen not to be confined to this space alone. This approach allows for a more nuanced  examination of interactions with both neighboring and more distant regions and supports a  comparative framework that sharpens conceptual tools while deepening our understanding of how  temporality shapes public policy, humanitarian and associative interventions, as well as the lived  and outlived experiences of migrants and their families.

During their temporary stays, migrants engage in everyday interactions with individuals who  carry—and reproduce—representations of both the Other and the self. The duration and nature of  these encounters play a crucial role in either reinforcing or deconstructing stereotypical attitudes.  At various stages of their trajectories, migrants meet people from diverse cultural and social  backgrounds, making the temporality of migration a critical lens through which to examine  intercultural relations and the processes through which biases and perceptions are shaped,  challenged, or transformed.

Despite a substantial body of literature on exile, relatively few studies have addressed how  migrants themselves represent the spaces they traverse—particularly through artistic and literary  production. This dimension remains underexplored and warrants closer analytical attention.

It is therefore essential to highlight the adaptive strategies and forms of resilience developed by  migrants themselves as they navigate hostile environments or spaces requiring adjustment to  unfamiliar socio-cultural, economic, and political frameworks. In this regard, the collection of life  narratives and in-depth interviews offers valuable methodological avenues for foregrounding  grassroots perspectives and centering migrant agency in the study of temporary migration. 

Notably, social media platforms have emerged as critical arenas for the performative construction  and negotiation of migrant identities (Djebeil, 2025). These digital spaces constitute rich sites of  temporal representation and offer researchers an increasingly relevant corpus for analyzing  evolving subjectivities and practices of self-representation.

The aim of the symposium is to further scholarly inquiry into the multifaceted dimensions of  temporary migration by reconsidering analytical scales and promoting innovative methodological  approaches rooted in empirical fieldwork and critical engagement with heterogeneous corpora— including archival records, institutional documents, personal testimonies, and diverse media  outputs. Contributors are invited to reflect on the influence of temporary migration on public policy  frameworks, sociocultural representations, and the complex textures of migrants’ lived  experiences.

Key Areas
  • Temporary Migration of Workers and professional/ skilled labor migration. ⮚ Migration and Education.
  • Living and Surviving within Migration Transit Spaces.
  • Exile and Temporality.
  • Migrants’ Representation of Temporality.6
Output
  • Enhancing the Analytical Framework/ conceptualization of Temporality in the Migratory  Context.
  • Fostering intellectual and Scholarly exchange between academics from European  universities and institutions and across the MENA region.”
  • Publication of the conference proceedings during the year 2026.
Submission Guidelines

Papers that engage with and address one or more of the following areas of focus are welcome:  

Interested authors are invited to submit original abstracts of 250–350 words, outlining the research  question, data or corpus used, and the adopted methodology.

Submissions must include a brief bio with institutional affiliation, research interests, and key  publications.

Proposals should be submitted by October 5, 2025 to the following addresses: labohesm.carep@gmail.com

Important Dates and Deadlines
  • Submission Deadline : Abstracts must be submitted by October 5, 2025.
  • Notification of Acceptance: Authors will be notified of the Scientific Committee’s decision by October 20, 2025. 
  • Full Paper Submission: Authors of accepted proposals are required to submit the complete text of their presentations by  March 30, 2026.
  • Conference Dates: The conference will be held on May 7-8-9, 2026.  
Scientific Committee

Hayet Amamou (University of Tunis), Chadia Arab (CNRS, UMR ESO-Angers), Riadh Ben Khalifa  (University of Tunis), Fatma Chalfouh (University of Tunis), Mohamed Charef (Université Ibn Zohr Agadir), Julius Dihstelhoff, ( Mecam-University of Tunis), Anne Dulphy (Ecole polytechnique), Piero  Dominique Galloro (University of Lorraine), Roméo Gbaguidi (Antonio de Nebrija University, Madrid.),  Sofien Jaballah (University of Sfax), Karim Khaled (CREAD-Algéria), Mehdi Mabrouk (University of  Tunis), Esther Möller ( Marc Bloch Zentrum), Antonio M. Morone ( University of Pavia) ; Khalid  Mouna (Rabat Social Studies Institute), Harouna Mounalaika (Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey),  Fatma Raach (Universitof Tunis elManar) , Antoine Pécoud (Sorbonne Paris North University), Céline  Regnard (Aix-Marseille University).

Organizing Committee

Hayet Amamou, Mehdi Mabrouk, Riadh Ben Khalifa, Fatma Chalfouh, Henda Ghribi, Safouane Trabelsi

Conference Coordinator : Riadh Ben Khalifa

Selected Bibliography

Abbondanza, Gabriele (2024), The Foreign Policy of Irregular Migration Governance State  Security and Migrants’ Insecurity in Italy and Australia, London, Routledge.

About, Ilsen, Denis, Vincent (2010), Histoire de l'identification des personnes, La Découverte,  coll. « Repères Histoire ».

Ait Ben Lmadani, Fatima (2020), La vieillesse illégitime ? : Migrantes marocaines en quête de  reconnaissance sociale ? Casablanca : La Croisée des chemins.

Alioua, Mehdi, (2013). Le Maroc, un carrefour migratoire pour les circulations euro-africaines ?  Hommes & Migrations, 1303(3), 139-145. https://doi.org/10.4000/hommesmigrations.2572. 

Arab, Chadia (2009) Les Aït Ayad. La circulation migratoire des Marocains, entre la France  l’Espagne et l’Italie, Presses universitaires de Rennes.

Arab, Chadia (2018), Dames de fraises, doigts de fée, les invisibles de la migration saisonnière,  Casablanca, En toutes Lettres. 

Azaitraoui, Mustapha & Arab, Chadia (2024) “Silence and intersectional resistance: the  mobilisation of temporary Moroccan temporary migrant women in Spain”. International Journal  of Migration and Border Studies, 8 (1/2), p.56-77.

Baby-Colin et al. ( dir.) (2017), Migrations et temporalités en Méditerranée - les migrations à  l'épreuve du temps, XIXe-XXIe siècle. Les migrations à l'épreuve du temps, XIXème-XXIème siècle,  Paris, Karthala.

Balleix, Corine (2022) Enjeux et défis de la politique migratoire européenne, Paris, Dalloz, 2022. 

Becker, Howard S. (1963), Outsiders : Études de sociologie de la déviance. Paris: Métailié. (Édition  française 1985)

Ben Khalifa, Riadh (2021), Entre deux rives. Itinéraire d’un historien des frontières, Tunis, Sotumédias.

Bertheleu, Hélène, Galloro, Piero et Petitjean, Michaël (2018), « Introduction ». Hommes &  Migrations, 1322(3), 6-7. https://doi.org/10.4000/hommesmigrations.6578

Bianchi, Olivia (2005), « Penser l’exil pour penser l’être », Le Portique . Revue de philosophie et  de sciences humaines, https://doi.org/10.4000/leportique.519

Billet, Carole, Halluin Estelle et Taxil, Bérangère (dir.) (2022), L’accueil des demandeurs d’asile  et des réfugiés aux portes de l’Europe, Paris, Mare & Martin.

Charef, Mohammed (1999) La circulation migratoire marocaine : un pont entre deux rives,  Agadir, Sud Contact.

Charef, Mohammed, Gauthier Catherine, De Tapia Stéphane, Ma Mung Emmanuel, Simon Gildas  (1999), La circulation migratoire marocaine, Poitiers, Migrinter.

Diaz, Delphine (2021) En exil. Les réfugiés en Europe, de la fin du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours, Paris,  Gallimard.

Gebeil, Sophie (2025), La fabrique des mémoires de l’immigration maghrébine sur le web français  de 1999 à 2014, Presses Universitaires de Provence. 

Donnan, Hastings, et al., (ed) (2017), Migrating Borders and Moving Times: Temporality and the  Crossing of Borders in Europe. Manchester University Press. 

Dulphy, Anne (2024) « Les réfugiés républicains espagnols en Algérie ». Entre décolonisation et  guerre froide, édité par Marianne Amar et al., Presses universitaires de Rennes,  https://doi.org/10.4000/12arx.

El Miri, Mustapha (2021), « La migration internationale des jeunes et des mineurs : un désir de «  l’ailleurs » pour se réaliser », in Les enfants migrants à l’école, edited by Maïtena Armagnague,  Claire Cossée, Catherine Mendonça Dias, Isabelle Rigoni, Simona Tersigni. Le Bord De l’Eau,  2021. 

Filhol, Romain (2022) « Travailleurs agricoles migrants et tomates à industrie en Italie du Sud :  les enjeux d’une délocalisation sur place », Carnets de géographes, 16 : DOI :  https://doi.org/10.4000/cdg.8283

Gastaut, Yvan (2000), L’immigration et l’opinion en France sous la Vème République, Paris,  Seuil, 2000.

Grossetti, Michel (2006), Bifurcations : Les sciences sociales face à l’événement, Paris, Éditions  de l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Jacobson, Christine, et al (ed.) (2022), Waiting and the Temporalities of Irregular Migration,  London, Routledge, 2022.

Jamid, Hicham, Migrer pour un diplôme : Marocains formés en France entre retour et non-retour,  Préface de Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, Paris, Karthala (A paraître).

Jamid, Hicham (2022), « Les étudiants étrangers en France : des démarches épineuses pour un  accueil en trompe-l’œil ». Dans V. Baby-Collin et F. Souiah. Enfances et jeunesses en migration (p. 351-367). Le Cavalier Bleu. 

John Torpey (2005), L’invention du passeport. Etats, citoyenneté et surveillance, Belin, coll.  « Socio-histoire », Paris.

Karim Khaled (2023), Intelligentsias algériennes. Le double exil, Alger, Editions Koukou.

Lacroix, Thomas (2023), The transnational society: a social theory of croos berder linkages,  Cham, Palgrave Macmillan.

Lacroix, Thomas (2024), The Transnational State: Governing Migratory Circulations (English  Edition), Cham, Palgrave Macmillan.

Loiseau, Gaelle, Lascaux, Anne-Adélaïde, Mesini, Béatrice, (Mai 2024), « Pas de droits pour les  saisonniers étrangers », The Conversation,: https://theconversation.com/les-oublies-de-la-crise agricole-pas-de-droit-de-sejour-pour-les-saisonniers-etrangers-222051

Mabrouk Mehdi (2010) Voiles et sel. Culture, Foyers et organisation de la migration clandestine  en Tunisie, Tunis, Sahar Editions. 

Mésini, Béatrice (2022), « En contrats de saison ou en contrats de mission dans l’arboriculture  méridionale : les droits entachés des travailleurs étrangers ». Revue européenne des migrations  internationales, 38(3), p. 43-66.

Mills-Affif, Édouard (2004), Filmer les immigrés : les représentations audiovisuelles de  l’immigration à la télévision française, Bruxelles, Ed. De Boeck ; Bry-sur-Marne : INA.

Morice, Alain (2001), « choisis, contrôlés, placés » renouveau de l'utilitarisme migratoire.  Vacarme, 14 (1), 56-60. https://doi.org/10.3917/vaca.014.0056.

Moujoud, Nasima, (2008), « Effets de la migration sur les femmes et sur les rapports sociaux de  sexe. Au-delà des visions binaires », Les cahiers du CEDREF, 16 p. 57-79.

Peró Davide, (2014) “Class Politics and Migrants: Collective Action Among New Migrant  Workers in Britain.” Sociology OnlineFirst, March 13: 10.1177/0038038514523519

Rass, Christoph (2023): ‘Gastarbeiter’ – ‘Guest Worker’. Translating a Keyword in Migration  Politics. IMIS Working Paper 17, Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien  (IMIS) der Universität Osnabrück. Osnabrück : IMIS.

Regnard, Céline (2022), En transit : les Syriens à Beyrouth, Marseille, Le Havre, New York, 1880- 1914, Paris, Anamosa. 

Rosenthal, Paul André (1999) Les sentiers invisibles. Familles et migrations. France, XIXe siècle,  Paris, Editions de l’EHESS. 

Sayad, Abdelmalek (1991), L’immigration ou le paradoxe de l’altérité. 1. L’illusion du provisoire,  Paris, éditions De Boeck (Bruxelles).

Simon, Gildas (1981) « Réflexions sur la notion de champ migratoire international. » Hommes et  Terres du Nord, Acte du colloque international, Lille, 16, 17, 18, octobre 1980, numéro spécial,  Vol. 1, n 1, p. 85-89. 

Schmoll, Camille (2020), Les damnées de la mer. Femmes et frontières en Méditerranée, Paris,  La découverte. 

Schor, Ralph (1985), L’opinion française et les étrangers 1919-1939, Paris, Publications de la  Sorbonne, 1985. 

Stark, Oded, et David E. Bloom (1985), “The New Economics of Labor Migration.” The American  Economic Review 75 (2) : 173–178.

Teulières, Laure, Hélène Bertheleu, et Marianne Amar, éd. (2015) Mémoires des migrations, temps  de l’histoire. Tours : Presses universitaires François-Rabelais :  https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pufr.13590.

Triandafyllidou, Anna ( éd.) (2022), Temporary Migration: Category of Analysis or Category of  Practice? London : Routledge.

Wihtol de Wenden, Catherine (2016), Migrations. Nouvelle donne, Paris, Maison des Sciences de  l’homme.

Wihtol de Wenden, Catherine (2022), Perception du migrant en France 1870-2022, Paris, CNRS  éditions.

 

Location: 10 rue tanit notre-dame
Tunis, Tunesien (1082 Tunis)

Event format: hybrid event

Keywords: temporary migration, space, regulation, imaginary

Contact person: Henda Ghribi
courriel : henda [dot] carep [at] gmail [dot] com

Checked
1 hour 15 minutes ago
Subscribe to Social and Labour History News feed