Call for Article Proposals: “Changing Landscapes: Switzerland and Migration”
An Edited Volume

Edited by Barbara Lüthi (University of Cologne, Germany) and
Damir Skenderovic (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)

In this edited volume with the working title “Changing Landscapes: Switzerland and Migration”, to be published in an English speaking publishing house, we seek to bring together new approaches that address histories of migration related to Switzerland. Thinking beyond a national framework, we invite contributions that rethink migration history from a transnational, postcolonial, and/or intersectional perspective. The volume aims to give special attention on the circulation of people, ideas, and commodities that transcend the boundaries of nation-states, on histories “from below” as well as on the manifold actors and institutions involved in migratory processes in past and present. Furthermore, contributions critically reflecting on definitions, classifications and labelings concerning migration and its diverse actors are highly welcome.

We particularly encourage submissions of historical, multi-archival work and interdisciplinary methodological approaches. Since the volume is seeking new and exciting research ideas, on-going individual as well as collaborative projects are welcome. We hereby attempt to fill a gap in English research literature relating to themes on Switzerland and migration from a historical and interdisciplinary perspective.
The sub-sections listed below reflect some of the possible general themes but are not exclusive. Related subjects and new ideas are also welcome.

Political Power and Politics of Activism

We invite contributions that explore how people affect and are affected by migratory regimes, thereby concomitantly addressing questions about the links between macro- and micro- levels of historical transformation and the dynamics between agents and agency. We are especially interested in illuminating the politics of activism and strategies on the side of migrants and migrant organizations. How were migrants affected by state regulation and policies but just as well how have they evaded state power and interventions? How did individuals, groups or organizations affiliated with migration use their power or become disruptive participants who mobilized for change? How do those ‘who do not count’ (Rancière), who have ‘no part’ in the recognized social order (e.g. undocumented, subalterns), make a claim to be counted? We are particularly interested in studies that reach beyond the “traditional” focus on the regulatory state and institutional settings and that focus on alternative actors, spaces, and practices.

Colonial Pasts and their Legacies

With the acknowledgement in newer research that countries without former colonies were also engaged in colonialism in a variety of ways, we are looking for contributions that explore colonial and postcolonial aspects of migration and migratory regimes pertaining to Switzerland. Dimensions of colonialism, decolonization and postcolonialism need to be rethought with respect to migration. For example, in what ways were settlers, traders, missionaries, and mercenaries from Switzerland involved in colonial enterprises, the expulsion and resettlement of indigenous peoples and other forms of (coerced) migration? Are there colonial origins of constructing „non-Western“, „non-Swiss“ social, religious or national groups in a specific manner (e.g. as unemancipated, uncivilized, violent)? How do colonial images and representations still influence and affect political and popular perceptions and discourses in Switzerland and have there been transnational circulations of such images and representations with specific local adaptations?

Power of Epistemologies and Bureaucratic Documentation

The power of bureaucratic classification and documentation to make social distinctions and categorize human beings according to established criteria touches on an important aspect of modern migration policy. Especially since the end of the 19th century Western countries have developed ever more restrictive laws and categorizations designed and used to qualify or disqualify specific groups of people from entry into and exit from countries and thereby control migration. Roger Zetter reminds us that examining how labels are chosen and applied to those migrating can explain how certain bureaucratic, political and other interests and procedures are crucial determinants in the definition of labels such as “immigrant”, „refugee“, „forced migrant“, „Gastarbeiter“ and the more. How have such labelings and epistemes changed over time? How have the deliberate fractionings and conflations of such labels served national and supra-national interests, actors or the regulation and securitization of migration?

Borders and Mobilities

The figure of the border has become central to discussions and arguments about migration in the past decades. The border has been seen as one of the fundamental political institutions in mapping spatial and imaginary landscapes, and the bordering process plays one of the most important roles for communities, delineating between us and them, inside and outside, safe and dangerous. Borders represent both an invocation of the limits in politics and of political community, and a technology of limits and demarcation. Borders are central to the attempts of governments to control migration, exchange and mobility. At the same time borders are closely linked to questions of political identity and collective imaginaries. How has border management changed in Switzerland over time and in what way have they expanded? How have technologies of surveillance at the border correlated with surveillance practices inside the national boundaries and in what way have they transnationalized? And since borders are always fluid and instable, how have they been defied, evaded and challenged? Have borders only been places of separation and demarcation where differences are asserted or are they also places of exchange and enrichment where pluralist identifications can develop?

Materiality in Transit: Objects and Infrastructures

With the widespread recognition in the humanities and social sciences of a „return to things“, it has become common knowledge that human existence and social life depend on material things and are often closely intertwined with them. Also human migration cannot be separated from objects and the material (e.g. border infrastructure, documents, vehicles, security and transportation technology). The need for a more situated, material account of migration politics has been acknowledged. How have vehicles and infrastructures of transportation changed the mobility of migrants over time? What objects and infrastructure have been used for channeling and controlling the entries, exits and deportation of migrants (for example, handcuffs, wheelchairs, airplanes, sedatives used during deportations at present)? In what way have people and groups concerned with migration developed and used practices that attempt to deal with these instruments and materialized mechanisms of control?

Images and Representations of Migrants and Migration

Since the emergence of the so-called “pictorial turn” within cultural and historical studies, images have occupied an important role as a medium/carrier through which social life and history can be analyzed. Images are not merely a mirror of reality but rather influence historical processes and the perception of reality. As movies, photographs or posters, images constitute specific frames of meaning through which people perceive history and constitute social signification. From the “human zoos” over children’s books up to the present-day preferred pictorial representations of political parties of “others” on their election posters, one must question such cultural meanings as to their visual impact. We invite contributions that analyze how migrants are racialized, sexualized, gendered or “othered” in specific ways and to what ends. We are likewise interested in contributions that explore the ways in which artists, writers, filmmakers and other cultural players utilized their resources to comment on and intervene in debates and topics concerning the representation of migration and migrants.

Key Dates and Deadlines:

Please submit your abstract by April 30, 2016. (300-500 words) to:
barbara.luethi@unibas.ch or damir.skenderovic@unifr.ch

We will need complete article submissions by November 1, 2016 (8,000 - 10,000 words, including notes).