S.A. Smythe: Colonial Technologies of Migrant Dispossession across the Mediterranean
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Lecture Series: FORCED MIGRATION
9 December 2026, 4.15–5.45 pm
online
S.A. Smythe (University of Toronto)
Colonial Technologies of Migrant Dispossession across the Mediterranean [EN]
This lecture approaches the Black Mediterranean as a way of situating contemporary forced migration and imperial border governance within the longer histories of colonialism and racial capitalism. More broadly, it discusses research into the technocultural and aesthetic conditions through which displacement, mobility and belonging are rendered legible and governable across Frontex Europe and its externalised borders. Ceuta, Tripoli, Lampedusa, and possibly Calais will be examined as interrelated contemporary sites where these processes become particularly visible and deadly, whilst also considering forms of resistance and connection that emerge in opposition to and beyond them.
Moderator: Mouna Maaroufi (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION)
Please register here once for all online events in the ‘Forced Migration’ lecture series:
https://forms.europa-uni.de/form/alias/EUV/forced-migration-lecture-series/
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FORCED MIGRATION – Lecture Series, Winter Semester 2026/2027
The lecture series is organised by the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION and brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on forced migration, borders, asylum and refugee reception. It examines how experiences of displacement are shaped by immigration and asylum regimes, legal insecurity, racialisation, gendered and intersectional inequalities, and changing infrastructures of border control and reception.
Combining theoretical debate with empirical research and perspectives from policy, activism and practice, the series addresses border externalisation and violence, differentiated forms of vulnerability and protection, refugee agency and collective action, and the everyday negotiation of institutional constraints. It also considers questions of local reception, participation and support, linking wider debates on European migration governance with experiences and practices in specific national and local contexts.