Migration and Border Studies Conference 2025

Queen Mary’s interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Migration and the (B)Orders Centre for the Study of Borders, Migration and Displacement are co-hosting a two-day conference exploring prospects and possibilities for migration and border studies.  

Amid rapidly evolving political dynamics, legal frameworks and praxis, this timely intervention is informed by pivotal debates on the enduring coloniality of migration and border studies. We aim to critically examine epistemological imbalances regarding who produces knowledge, and whose knowledge counts, in spaces inhabited by diverse actors ranging from migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to academics, activists, and policymakers. Emphasizing the need for interdisciplinarity in fields characterised by multiple and overlapping areas of inquiry, our goal is to explore the possibilities for productive collaboration among scholars, practitioners, and those with lived experience of migration. These discussions are taking place against a backdrop of escalating anti-migrant rhetoric and systemic and normalised embodied violence fuelled by the rise of populism, authoritarianism and social media-enabled disinformation. Additionally shifting research funding landscapes presents both challenges, and generates possibilities, for creative thinking and doing migration and border research differently. 

Aiming to foster an open, interdisciplinary dialogue, we welcome diverse contributions which address, but are not limited to, the following questions:  

• What is the future of knowledge production in migration and border studies? How do we (co) construct alternatives to dominant trajectories in political, popular and legal discourse, and in practice? What are the limitations to diverse knowledge production including, but not limited to, growing global inequalities, privileged knowledges, digital divides, restrictive legal developments, rights contraction, and/or democratic backsliding? 

• How can we mobilise (or re-design) research methods for resisting global migration inequalities and border violence? 

• Which strategies are available or can be rethought anew to counter misinformation and conspiracies linked to escalating anti-migrant rhetoric? 

• What is the best way to build bridges across disciplines and with practitioners and those with lived experiences of displacement? What are the challenges, and opportunities, for the co-production of knowledge? 

• What is the impact of changes to the funding landscape, and of existing disciplinary and/or publishing conventions, on the future of migration and border studies?  

• How can new epistemic horizons regarding borders and migration be brought into legal, policy and/or public discourse?  

The conference will consist of plenary talks, paper presentations, and panel discussions with practitioners. The call for papers is open until 10th April 2025, midday.  

Proposals must include: a title; name(s) email address(es) and organisational affiliations of author(s) and a 250-word abstract. Please send to cfsm@qmul.ac.uk and include Paper Proposal in the subject line. Please indicate in your proposal if you are an early career researcher and would like to be considered for financial assistance. 

This event is in-person only.