The Migrating University Project

14 – 15 September 2007

 

[ an invitation for all students, staff and community members including asylum seekers and refugees to participate in a free open access two-day education and arts event at Goldsmiths University]

 

[programme subject to change]

 

Friday 14th September

Venue: Room 150 and 137a Richard Hoggart Building

 

10am Welcome, coffee, tea, info stalls for No Borders Camp

Room 150 RHB

 

10.30 Introduction and welcome to The Migrating University Project

     Room 137a RHB

 

John Hutnyk (Goldsmiths) Introduction to the day

Camille Barbagallo (Goldsmiths) No Borders Camp at Gatwick.

 

10.50 Panel #1 – The Teaching Factory

-

12.55      Chair: Leila

Does a university education offer a passport to a world of opportunity?

Are the old exclusions of race, class, gender and ability fully redeemed by our policy initiatives and "inclusive" programs?  Or is the new hierarchy a filtering mechanism promising precarious labour for some, security and success for others?   While some may never question their right to access, do some have to fight to move at all and others struggle daily simply to pass or fail?

This panel asks if education is really a social good, a pass to freedom; or if it is rather a ticket to a new set of subjugations?

 

Speakers:

Ash Sharma (University of East London)

Massimo de Angelis (University of East london)

Paul Hendrich (Goldsmiths)

 

 

12.55 Picnic in the Courtyard.

-    and  performaces

2.30pm 

 

2.30 Panel #2 - Critical Pedagogy

-

4.00 Chair: Francisco

Critical Pedagogy (CP) questions the relationship between education and politics, between socio-political relations and pedagogical practices, in short: the correspondence between power hierarchies in the social world and the hierarchies that mark and define educational institutions at large. Moreover it challenges the ubiquitous desire of policy makers for a non-politicized, neutral educational context, free of all social and cultural conflict.

 

Speakers:

Sanjay Sharma (Brunel University) – author of (2007) "Multicultural Encounters".

Glenn Rikowski (University of Northampton) – author of "The Battle in Seattle" (2001)

Tom Woodin ( Institute of Education , University of London )

 

4.15 Panel #3 – Organising in the Margins

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6.00 Chair: Olivia

Migration means traversing boundaries: between nations, between legality and illegality. This panel is about organising those in the seams and the struggles for justice for those who suffer or die in such black holes.

 

Speakers:

Ava Caradonna (Sex Workers' Union)

What does it mean to organise the unorganisable? What does union organising mean to people who are not considered workers, or who don't necessarily consider what they do 'work', 'illegal' or worthy of stigma? How do unions take seriously the need to organise migrants workers? How can unionism be done differently in this context? Ava Caradonna will discuss such questions and campaigns relating to them.

 

Susan Cueva (UNISON)

Is a life-long union activist in the Philippines and UK with experience of organising the invisible, from seafarers to street cleaners. Today's talk includes information about UNISON campaigns seeking fair terms for migrant workers affected by swings in Home Office policy on work permits.

 

Ken Fero (Injustice)

A short, YouTube, version of Injustice - a film about the struggles for justice by the families of people who have died in police custody – and accompanying talk by the film's maker.

 

6.15 Goldsmiths To Gatwick

meeting upstairs in Goldsmiths Tavern about collective attendance at Gatwick.

 

7.00 Joan Marie Kelly (Singapore)

-

9.00 Workshop upstairs in Tavern (with drinks).

Foreign workers in Singapore and the use of art as contact and transformation

 

                ============================

 

 

Saturday 15th September

Venue: Cinema Richard Hoggart Building.

 

10am Welcome, coffee, tea, info stalls for No Borders Camp

 

10.30 Panel #4 – Critical Practice Inside and Out

-

12.30      Chair: John

It is believed there was once a time when the University was a place where there thrived a rampant intelligence that was preoccupied with something more than just cramming.

 

Speakers:

Hari Kunzru (Novelist – author of "My Revolutions" (2007)

David Graeber (Goldsmiths)

Mao Mollona (Goldsmiths)

     Sukant Chandran (Che Leila)

 

 

1.00 Panel #5 – Local Checkpoints

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2.00 Chair: Camille

 

This panel will provide an opportunity to hear from activists and community members involved in grassroots and local campaigns and projects.

 

Speakers:

Harmit Athwal (Institute of Race Relations)

Katherine Mann (Musician)

Almir Koldzic (Refugee Week)

 

 

2.00 Quick lunch

 

 

3pm  Battle of Lewisham commemorative walk

-

6pm

 

A walk along the route of the march/counter-protest against the NF in 1977, including people involved at the time. At present this will start from Clifton Rise, New Cross at 3. (info/liaison with Paul).

 

 

19-24 September O7 – No Borders Camp at Gatwick

 

From 19th to 24th September 07 we will gather at Gatwick Airport for the first No Border Camp in the UK. This camp will be a chance to work together to try and stop the building of a new detention centre, and to gather ideas for how to build up the fight against the system of migration controls.