Migration Narratives is an interdisciplinary research group associated with UBC’s Centre for Migration Studies. The group is interested in the social, political, artistic, practical and theoretical implications pertaining to narratives of migration and belonging and the politics of belonging. By investigating settler, migrant, refugee, and Indigenous narratives in relation to one another we seek to identify alternative narratives that critically and constructively challenge Eurocentric notions of settlement, ownership, and identity. To foster a possibilities of decolonized social belonging, we question binary and place-based concepts of hybridity, diversity, integration, settlement and Indigenous belonging, as they appear in literature, film, and other media. Our aim is to ascertain criteria for transformative aesthetics that renegotiate and change political perspectives, and thus can play a part in challenging collective core narratives in plural societies.
The Narratives research group was initiated in 2019 as part of Markus Hallensleben’s SSHRC research project on “Migration as Core Narrative of Plural Societies: Towards an Aesthetics of Postmigrant Literature” but strives to go beyond literary narratives of migration. We warmly welcome the participation of interested students and scholars of all disciplines.
The group meets every 2-3 months throughout the Winter Terms, alongside organizing public talks and collaborative workshops.