Call for Papers: Contemporary Human Mobilities: Arrival, Infrastructures & Politics, 21 – 22 January 2027
- Where: University of Groningen (Groningen, The Netherlands)
- Format: On-site
- When: 21 – 22 January 2027
- Funding availability: Limited grants for travel / accommodation
- Organisers: Human Mobility & Migration (HuMM) Lab
Conceptually, arrival holds an ambiguous position within migration processes. Political, legal and media discourses view arrival as the final point concluding migration. Accordingly, arrival is constructed as a telos which is widely assumed to be reached after overcoming concrete obstacles that vary in nature (e.g. legal & tax, political, socio-economic, cultural or psychological). Lived experiences of arrival, however, vary significantly in content and form as well as space and time. Likewise, infrastructures of arrival and contemporary political discourses on migration are unable to provide clear-cut definitions of arrival. Within critical migration studies, arrival is understood as a teleological construct embedded in migration governance. It functions as a regulatory fiction that organizes mobility into linear trajectories, even as migrants remain subject to ongoing bordering, temporal suspension, and differential inclusion. Beyond these insights, this conference opens the notion of arrival and explores its implementations in interdisciplinary ways.
It focuses on the following sub-themes:
a. Thinking Arrival
b. Arrival and the Temporalities of Migration
c. Lived Experiences and Practices of Arrival
d. Narratives of Integration and Imaginaries of Arrival
We invite papers engaging with these themes, driven by the following overarching question: “How do we explore the complexities and ambiguities of arrival in an interdisciplinary setting?” This conference will be organized in the form of panel discussions based on the sub-themes to which the submitted papers relate.
Please submit your paper abstract – including the sub-theme and indicating why your paper speaks to this sub-theme – to hummlab@rug.nl no later than May 31, 2026 (300 words max. + paper title + 5 keywords).
A selection of papers will be included in a special issue or an edited volume with a reputable (interdisciplinary) journal or publishing house.
Important dates:
● 31 May 2026: Closing of submission phase for individual paper abstract (sent to hummlab@rug.nl; please indicate if you prefer your paper not being part of a special issue or edited volume)
● 15 July 2026: Notification of acceptance
● 5 December 2026: Deadline for draft paper (approx. 5,000-6,000 words) submission for circulation among conference participants
● 21-22 January 2027: Discussion of papers at conference
● 31 May 2027: Submission of the final paper
Costs: Participants are asked for a contribution of € 50.
We can offer a limited number of travel stipends for early career scholars without a conference budget of their own.
For more details, refer here
