12–14 June 2024, UEF Joensuu campus hosts the significant international conference Moving Cultures, Moving Ethnicities that addresses topics of cultural mobility and multiethnicity. The interdisciplinary meeting focuses on migration and minority literatures and cultures and brings to Joensuu 130 researchers from more than 20 countries. UEF’s strong research addressing borders, mobility, and cultural encounters has played a key role in the opportunity to organize the meeting in Joensuu.
The keynoters of the conference come from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland. John McLeod (University of Leeds) addresses the ambiguous roles of the “good immigrant” and the “trespasser” in contemporary Anglophone literature. Tobias Skowronek (Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola Bochum) analyses the historical trade connections between West Africa and Europe. Using the methods of geochemistry, the bracelet-like metal rings used in slave trave are shown to be of European origin. Anna-Leena Toivanen’s lecture represents the field of literary mobility studies and addresses the role of the hotel in African and Afrodiasporic writing.
The conference presentations provide timely and diverse perspectives onto ethnic and migration literatures and cultures from North America to Asia, with a particular focus onto the cultural and national border-crossings in different arts and artforms. The meeting is organized by the UEF School of Humanities in collaboration with the international research association MESEA: Multi-Ethnic Studies in Europe and the Americas. This meeting is the 13th biennial conference of the organization.
Conference website:
https://mesea.org/joensuu-2024/
