Event overview
Workshop and book launch
‘To outline the experience of the migrant worker and to relate this to what surrounds him – both physically and historically’ John Berger has asserted, is to grasp more surely the political reality of the world at this moment’. The ‘this moment’ that Berger was referring to was 1970s Europe. At that time migration was largely the province of men. Parodying the myth of infinite substitution and the denial of the migrant worker’s susceptibility and finitude in global capitalism, Berger wrote,
'So far as the economy of the metropolitan country is concerned,migrant workers are immortal: immortal because continually interchangeable.They are not born:they are not brought up and they do not age:they do not get tired:they do not die.'
Along with the capacity for mobility, reinvention and resilence required of migrants, there is another more infirm side to our world on the move that deserves greater recognition and understanding. Attending to the situation of the migrant at times of illness and death is to open ourselves to the coming together of two of the most radical thresholds of bodily estrangement and vulnerability: the movement across territories and from life to death.
As well as engaging with themes and stories from the book 'Death and the Migrant', the workshop will be an opportunity to respond to archival (im)materials of social pain. With ‘Of words and worlds’ Mariam Motamedi Fraser turns to the materiality of words and the power of stories without a referent. Gerry Prince, a musician and music therapist in hospices and care homes will invite us to listen in on what happens ‘When music is your only friend’, a case story of music thanatology with a Caribbean woman with dementia. Using the title ‘GUESTures’ Margareta Kern will tell us about her work with migrant women and those who dress for death.
Throughout we will meet matters of pain and temporal and neurological migrations at the end of life. These are journeys induced by disability and disease, journeys beneath the skin while all the time staying in place. Who are you when you are leaving your life? Where are you?
Kindly supported by the Methods Lab and Interdisciplinary Development
Workshop and book launch 28 November 2013
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 28 Nov 2013 | 5:15pm - 6:30pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
