Jane Freedman: Intersectional Vulnerabilities and the Boundaries of Forced Migration

Lecture Series FORCED MIGRATION
20 January 2027, 4:15-5:45 pm CET

online

Jane Freedman (Université Paris 8)
Intersectional Vulnerabilities and the Boundaries of Forced Migration [EN]

This lecture will examine the ways in which intersecting structures of violence and discrimination shape the experiences of people in situations of forced migration. Drawing on examples from various EU and non-EU settings it will show how borders are shaped through structures of gendered, racialised and class violence. It will also examine the ways in which attempts to codify “vulnerability” can act to essentialise what are in fact fluid and contextual intersectional positions, and the ways in which those who are impacted by this violence can create strategies of resistance and survival.

Jane Freedman is Professor of Sociology at Université Paris 8 and a member of the Centre de recherches sociologiques et politiques de Paris (CRESPPA). Her research focuses on gender and migration, forced migration and asylum, with particular attention to intersectional and postcolonial approaches, gendered and racialised violence, vulnerability, and resistance at borders. She is currently leading the ERC Advanced Grant project GRABS on young people growing up in situations of forced migration.

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 within the framework of 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, connecting wider debates on European migration governance with experiences and practices in specific national and local contexts.