Muffled Protest from boat-people.org on Vimeo.

The Boat People art gang are making a work and we are inviting you to be involved. Our borders remain the hot election issue, and we are becoming fools again, baying at strangers, terrified and stupid. Display your dismay, and send the photos to us at muffled_protest AT yahoo.com.

(Thanks to Dian McLeod for these wonderful images.)

In and Out of Place is a postgraduate and early-career researcher conference to discuss the different forms that belonging takes in the contemporary urban environment. Coordinated by Liv Hamilton and Katie Hepworth, in conjunction with the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University. 10 December 2010.

Topics of inquiry
What makes us feel at home in a particular place, at a particular time? What narratives do people create to explain their place in the world? How are cities changed by the introduction of people from across the world? How do people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse cultural practices negotiate their cohabitation of the same city spaces? What specific forms of regulation affect such cohabitation?

This conference is an opportunity to explore such questions in detail. We seek paper proposals that examine the problematics that diverse senses of belonging introduce to the contemporary city, and the unique solutions that people discover: for example, the changing uses made of city spaces; ghettoisation; opportunities for cultural exchange; displacement of indigenous peoples and resulting claims for recognition; etc.

Aims
The conference will bring together graduate students and early career researchers working at the intersection of migration and urban studies, with the aim of establishing a network of researchers across Sydney-based and Australian Universities. Given the political nature of much of this research, the conference aims to open up discussion on non-traditional avenues for the presentation of academic research, which may have a wider social impact, or are more immediate, and not governed by the long timelines typical of academic journals and book publication.

Format and schedule
Papers will be 15 minutes each, with 3 papers per session, with participants prepared to discuss their own and each others’ work after the presentation, in a chaired discussion and question time. Participants will therefore be required to submit their paper for circulation amongst other presenters 2 weeks before the conference.

In the afternoon, we will hold a round-table discussion, ‘Out of Place in the City’, in which all conference attendees are invited to participate. We will invite one or more expert speakers who will present their work, exploring both its academic aspects and non-traditional forms of presentation, followed by open discussion focusing on questions such as: How do we make our work relevant to the communities we study? What is the role of the academic in the community? What are the possibilities for political action and joint university-community projects? How do we approach non-traditional presentation of work through, for example, artistic/creative endeavours?

Call for papers
Abstracts of no more than 400 words may be submitted up to and including 1 August 2010, to inandoutofplace@gmail.com. You will be notified of acceptance of your paper no later than 1 September 2010.