Race, Refuge, and Repair

Co-collaborators: Dr Catherine Briddick (RSC) and Dr Uttara Shahani (RSC) with Dr Nicola Palmer (King’s College London and UCT), Dr Lufuno Sadiki (UCT), Professor Fatima Khan (UCT), Dr Nomfundo Ramalekana (UCT), Dr Alpa Parmar (Cambridge) and Ms Joanna Rahmatoulay Bakilana (UCT).

While the causes and experiences of displacement are complex and diverse, at their heart are issues relating to conflict and insecurity, state formation, and bordering. Race, Refuge & Repair speaks to these, taking E Tendayi Achiume’s work on decolonial migration as its intellectual entry point to address the central question of what is owed, by whom, to Global South citizens on the move. In doing so, it will draw on insights from law, criminology, history, race and ethnic studies, refugee studies, and anthropology to analyse the relationships between, and the co-constitution of, colonial and postcolonial governance, international law, and refugee protection.

This collaborative and international project examines how state obligations are altered as a result of the social, political, economic and legal ties that extend beyond national borders, drawing attention to states’ co-operation in relation to asylum, both rights-restrictive and protective.  Its workshop and its resulting publications will provide an improved understanding of the refugee regime, its history, instruments, institutions, and inequalities. 

Workshop

Race, Refuge and Repair: Rethinking Migration from the Global South

Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa

29 - 30 May 2025

Keynote: Professor E Tendayi Achiume in discussion with South African Human Rights Commissioner, Professor Tshepo Madlingozi.

Further details and the call for papers: here.

The colloquium will be co-hosted by the Centre for Criminology and the Refugee Rights Unit at the University of Cape Town, the Refugee Studies Centre (ODID) and Border Criminologies in the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford alongside the Centre for International Governance and Dispute Resolution at King’s College London.