“In Search of the Migrant Child” Workshop 3 (by invitation)
Not Mere Objects:
Uncovering Children’s Subjectivities in Migration
Online, May 16-17, 2022
The third digital workshop of the international standing working group “In Search of the Migrant Child” focuses on children’s subjectivities in contexts of migration. Mobility takes place at different levels and in different national, social or economic settings. The administration and organization of migrants of all ages, however, often leads to de-personalization – especially child migrants become governed objects, deprived of individual emotions, experiences or reasoning. This de-personalization also shapes the sources that emerge out of these migrants’ movements. For a long time, historiographies of childhood and migration have neglected sources and methodologies that reflect and incorporate the subjectivity of young migrants. The third workshop of the working group aims to draw attention to the often overlooked and diverse subjectivities of young migrants, uncovering sources associated with this dimension of their histories. The program begins with an interdisciplinary roundtable, titled “Giving a Voice to Children’s Subjectivities” and is dedicated to perspectives and methods from neighboring disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. Following that, members of the group will present historical case studies that offer insights into child migrants’ perspectives, their very own experiences, and their particular needs when facing displacement and migration.
MAY 16, 2022
17-20 CET / 11AM-2PM EST/ 10AM-1PM CST/ 8AM-11AM PST
Introduction
Swen Steinberg (German Historical Institute Washington with its Pacific Office at UC Berkeley)
Roundtable Discussion “Giving a Voice to Children’s Subjectivities – Interdisciplinary Perspectives”
Mehrunissa Ali (Ryerson University)
Rich Lee (University of Minnesota)
Kay Tisdall (University of Edinburgh)
John Wall (Rutgers University)
Chair: Sheer Ganor (University of Minnesota)
Break
Not Mere Objects: Case Studies on Children‘s Subjectivities in Migration I
Simone Laqua-O’Donnell (University of Birmingham): Missionary Children and the Creation of Childhood: Examples Taken from Basel Mission Families
Chelsea Shields (University of California, Irvine): From Object to Subject and Back Again?: Youth and Futurity in Caribbean Social Science Research
Chair: Bettina Hitzer (Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies, Dresden)
Closing Remarks
Sheer Ganor (University of Minnesota)
MAY 17, 2022
17-20:15 CET / 11AM-2:15PM EST/ 10AM-1:15PM CST/ 8AM-11:15AM PST
Introductory Remarks
Bettina Hitzer (Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies, Dresden)
Not Mere Objects: Case Studies on Children’s Subjectivities in Migration II
Friederike Kind-Kovács (Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies, Dresden): “Here I Have Not Even Got a Warm Room”:
A Refugee Girl’s Narrative of Migration during WWI
Olga Gnydiuk (Central European University, Vienna): Planning the Future: Reflections on Refugee Children‘s Subjectivity at the Time of Post-1945 Humanitarian Relief and Rehabilitation
Chair: Sheer Ganor (University of Minnesota)
Break
Not Mere Objects: Case Studies on Children‘s Subjectivities in Migration III
Magali Michelet (University of Neuchâtel): “That Moment of Stillness… Extreme Stillness”: Reconstructing Experiences of ‘Wardrobe Children‘ Families Through Children‘s Eyes, Ears and Tastes (Switzerland, 1964-1986)
Kimberly Cheng (New York University): Playing Soldiers: Jewish Refugees in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps
Chair: Swen Steinberg (German Historical Institute Washington with its Pacific Office at UC Berkeley)
Concluding Remarks
Friederike Kind-Kovács (Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies, Dresden)
Organization of the Upcoming Conference in September 2022 in Berkeley / Publication
Friederike Kind-Kovács, Bettina Hitzer, Sheer Ganor, Swen Steinberg