Event overview
This event is part of the Migrating Dreams and Nightmares project (October 2015-April 2016), which is organized by the Methods Lab, Goldsmiths.
Charles Hirschkind 'Reflections from Granada on the Place of Islam in Europe'
From the publication of Washington Irving’s Tales of Alhambra, in 1823, up through today, Granada has been a highly celebrated destination for travelers and tourists, drawn by the sublimity of its romantic oriental splendor. Yet, although the city is well known for the orientalist fantasy it puts on display for touristic consumption, here I want to consider forms of reflection that cannot be encompassed within the protocols of discourse and experience mobilized by the tourist industry, and that indeed, may challenge those protocols and the assumptions about history and geography they entail. Specifically, drawing on the works of writers, thinkers, and poets from the mid-19th century to the present, I trace a tradition of reflection that engages the city’s unique sensory and architectural configuration as the basis from which to reassess Spain’s relation to Islam, North Africa, and the Middle East. I conclude the talk with some general observations on the way the sensory and material infrastructure of Moorish Spain mediates and conditions the possibilities of finding a place for Islam in the country today.
Iain Chambers 'Citizenship and belonging in postcolonial Europe'
This commences from the implicit critique of the juridical structures of legalised citizenship posed by the contemporary migrant in the planetary context of a migrating modernity. Here lies the nightmare and heart of darkness of Occidental ‘democracy’ that has historically and structurally required the negation of rights, freedoms and democracy to others in order to exercise its rights. From these premises I will then move to consider understandings of belonging secured in the informal urban languages of sounds, images and words, and their ways of seeing, receiving and reworking the world.
The event runs from 4pm to 7pm including a drinks reception.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Feb 2016 | 4:00pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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