Aura Nikkilä, University of Turku: Compelling Encounters? Intermedial Elements in Migration-Themed Comics
Migration and migrants have been featured in comics throughout the history of the medium, but especially since the 1980s – with the rise of autobiographical comics as well as the formation of the genre of comics journalism – experiences of migration have become a central subject matter of the medium of comics. Comics is a distinctive form of narrative storytelling with a language of its own. In addition to the combination of visual and verbal elements, also the simultaneity and sequentiality of images are typical to the medium: the panels of comics function both in time and in space (Groensteen 2007). It can be argued that the spatio-temporal nature of comics makes it an apt form of expression for representing migration which is both a geographical and a historical phenomenon.
Due to the commingling of image and words, comics has been regarded intermedial per se (Rippl & Etter 2015). I am, however, interested in the intermediality of comics in a wider sense: in this presentation I will analyse the use of intermedial elements, such as photographs and maps, in migration-themed comics. Through different elements incorporated from other media to comics, such experiences of migrants as, for example, mobility, displacement, stasis, and un/belonging are further emphasised. Furthermore, I analyse how intermedial elements may also contribute to a meaningful and possibly even an empathetic encounter between the comic and the reader.
Laura Lamas Abraira, Dept. of Anthropology, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC): The other cartographies of Hong Kong: Exploring migrant domestic workers’ experiences and perceptions of the city through arts-based participatory research
Since the 1970s Hong Kong has been a primary destination for Southeast Asian female migrants. The foreign domestic workers (mainly Filipino and Indonesian) constitute the 4.5% of the HK population, even though they are largely exposed to very hard living and work conditions, often characterized by abuse and exploitation. These women are forced by law to live in their employer’s houses where they work between 12-18 hours a day and in most cases, they don’t have their own room or private space. On their day off (Sunday) they all go out driving to an intensive occupation of the public space across the city. This is particularly striking in the central area of the island, comprising the financial district, the most expensive and luxurious area of HK. Through an origin-based (country/region) spatialization, squares, sidewalks, parks, and walkways become full covered by camping tents, open umbrellas and cardboard boxes (often including self-made walls) which serve as a rug for picnicking, napping, singing karaoke or dancing, among many other activities; therefore, modifying the physical, social and cultural landscape of (Monday to Saturday) Hong Kong.
The relationship of these women and the city becomes mediated by the power (dis)continuities between the public and private spheres in a context in which both, the physical and symbolic dimensions of the space(s) matter. Based on a nine-months multimodal ethnography which includes among other visual methodologies the crafting of 30 mental-emotional cartographies through participatory inquiry, this presentation explores the potential of arts-based methods in: (1) creating unique spaces for emotionality, self-reflection and self-expression; and (2) to both decoding and representing intangible layers of the experience that remain unreachable to conventional methodological and text-centric representational models.
Letícia Simões, University of Porto: We, Malungas: a project on reimaging a world filled with heroines of the impossible
The WE, MALUNGAS project began as in-depth research into methods of female resistance to the Portuguese colonial slavery system in Brazil, focusing on technologies such as dance, music, desire and the narratives of our memory. From this initial research stories, documents, pictures, songs and photographs emerged into a 90 minute performance, uniting the familiar with the historical, intertwining today and forever.
The stories of WE, MALUNGAS are intertwined with a thought about the condition of black immigrant women today, in Portugal, through music and gastronomy, always thinking about the idea of a malunga identity, fluid, hybrid and potential. Built among and by black immigrant women (present) with resonances in the forgotten narrative of resistance by black women from the diaspora (past) aiming at other inscriptions in the world (future).
Malungo means “canoe” in the Bantu language, and it is the term designated in history for the symbolic operations that took place on the crossing of the slave ship, a very violent and demarcating journey. Forever and ever, from then on, subjectivity and corporality of these subjects that were part of this ship would be united, although they came from very different places. The idea of a malunga identity has to do with the complicity between trafficked souls; people coming from different contexts, who spoke different languages, who did not share the same rituals, but who, by experiencing the same violent experience, share, after leaving the crossing, a new language of life.
Turkan Firinci Orman, Department of Design, Aalto University: Navigating Citizenship as a Young Refugee: Studying Resilience through the ‘Cage’ Metaphor
This study deeply explores the relationship between lived and legal citizenship using the ‘Cage’ metaphor to highlight the complex dynamics faced by individuals whose sense of belonging and lived citizenship differ from formal legal definitions due to their refugee status. As such, the citizenship is understood both as emancipatory and dominating concept (Isin, 2024), as an apparatus of government.
Centred on the compelling story of Salma, a young Syrian refugee girl in Turkey, the research examines how she navigates these tensions with notable political presence, agency, and resilience amidst challenges such as racism, financial hardship, and systemic discrimination.
Utilizing a geosocial methodology combined with feminist geography and situational intersectionality, the study employs various research methods, including in-depth interviews and participatory techniques, to reveal Salma’s daily experiences and personal perspectives. By emphasizing Salma’s interpretive agency and creative self-empowerment, the study illustrates how she asserts her political presence in a complex socio-political environment, thus redefining traditional notions of citizenship while expressing her youthful identity. This research significantly enhances the understanding of youth political agency in refugee contexts, providing insights into the transformative power of creative agency and metaphorical analysis in reshaping societal views on citizenship.