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RSC Public Seminar Series, Trinity term 2023

Series convened by Dr Uttara Shahani

About the seminar

The talk is based on the recently published monograph Unruly Speech: Displacement and the Politics of Transgression and introduces the audience to the history of Uyghur displacement through a communication and media lens. Starting with the notion of transgressive speech as a sociopolitical code, cultural order, and technological configuration, the talk illustrates the intersections between the history of the northwestern border region in China, Uyghur migration, and Uyghur diasporic advocacy. The talk then focuses on the Uyghur diaspora in the United States and in Germany to show how communication practices and their premises travel and are strategically adapted for diasporic purposes, including the discourse on human rights. The discussion highlights how communication practices can be traced across time and space to identify their historical, institutional, and technological moorings as well as emerging interaction spaces for advocacy on a global scale. Overall, the longitudinal, multi-sited research in China, the United States, and Germany provides the basis for a conversation about fieldwork in transnational settings and the conditions that enable and control transgressive practices in contexts of displacement.

About the speaker

Saskia Witteborn is Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She specializes in critical technology studies and migration and has worked with migrants in the United States, Europe, and East Asia. She researches the geopolitics of identity, migrants’ digital technology practices, the datafication of migration, and the link between mobilities and immersive realities. Saskia was a visiting scholar at Free University of Berlin, at the Berlin Institute for Migration and Integration Research at Humboldt University, Télécom Paris, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is author of Unruly Speech: Displacement and the Politics of Transgression (Stanford University Press, 2023), co-editor of The SAGE Handbook of Media and Migration (Sage, 2020), and co-author of Together: Communicating Interpersonally. A Social Construction Approach (Oxford University Press, 6th ed., 2005).

Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture

The Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture is named in honour of Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, the founding Director of the Refugee Studies Centre. It is held each year in Michaelmas term.

Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture

The Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture is held in Trinity term. It is named after Professor Elizabeth Colson, a renowned anthropologist.

Public Seminar Series

Each term the RSC holds a series of public seminars, held on Wednesday evenings at Queen Elizabeth House. Click here for details of forthcoming seminars.

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Forthcoming events

Humanitarian extractivism: the digital transformation past, present, future

Wednesday, 08 May 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

Film screening and discussion: Missing in Brooks County

Wednesday, 15 May 2024, 5pm to 7pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

Forced Migration on Film: A Conversation with Marc Isaacs | Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2024

Wednesday, 22 May 2024, 5pm to 6.30pm @ Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne's College, 56 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HS

Book launch: The Politics of Crisis-Making: Forced Displacement and Cultures of Assistance in Lebanon

Wednesday, 29 May 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

Skilled worker visas for refugees – a qualitative evaluation of the UK’s Displaced Talent Mobility Pilot

Wednesday, 05 June 2024, 5pm to 6pm @ Seminar Room 1, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

A celebration of the life of David Turton

Saturday, 20 July 2024, 2pm to 3pm @ The Crypt Cafe, St Peters Church, Northchurch Terrace, London N1 4DA