2015 Conference
The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies hosted an international conference–titled Bodies in Motion–at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA) on March 20-21, 2015. This conference was intended to enrich scholarly narratives of migration by reflecting upon bodies in movement and the lived experiences of men and women who have migrated from, to, and in what came to be called the Middle East.
The conference looked at the ways migration redraws notions of gender and bodily comportment that men and women act out in new settings, the attempts of states and other powers to discipline and control the bodies of moving people, and the impact of migration on bodies and mind. Below are some of the questions that were tackled:
- In what ways might diasporic bodies mark the lives of those who stay behind?
- How do Middle East migrations relate to public health, ideas of disease, hygiene, and the body?
- How can the study of Middle East migrants help us understand discourses, and practices, of gender, sociability, society and culture?
- How do Middle East migrations influence the representation of the body in clothes, public performances, literary productions, etc.?
- How might the vantage point of the Middle East animate theoretical and historiographical explorations of the body in transit and in check – of bodies held back and scrutinized at the border or secluded in camps, of thwarted migrants and illicit movers, or of refugees stripped of the trappings of statehood?
Download the conference program here.
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