Tue June 24th

IASH, Edinburgh University

Speakers: Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, UCL
Dr Esa Aldegheri, University of Glasgow

Presented by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) and the Citizenship and Migration Research (CMR) Network at the University of Edinburgh –  Supported by the Leverhulme Trust

How have creative practices been used to inhabit, expose, navigate, or contest global geographies of asylum in the twenty-first century?

Displaced Arts  is a one-day interdisciplinary symposium that brings together scholars, artists, writers, and activists to explore how creative practices — from literature and storytelling to theatre, photography, and film — can illuminate the lived experiences of displacement.  

In an era marked by increasingly securitised borders, the asylum-industrial complex, and hostile dispersal policies, the symposium asks: How can art make visible the hidden infrastructures of exile — from camps and detention centres to remote resettlement sites? How might creative practices cultivate belonging, map new solidarities, and challenge the sovereignty of borders?  

Keynote speakers Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (UCL) and Dr Esa Aldegheri (University of Glasgow) will frame discussions that span topics such as creative placemaking, multilingualism, digital storytelling, and the intersection of migration, colonialism, and the environment.  

Building on work in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, Displaced Arts will also reflect on the opportunities and tensions of using creative methodologies in migration studies — questioning the burdens placed on displaced arts and imagining future geographies of asylum through artistic resistance.

Organised by Dr Annie Webster (University of Edinburgh) and hosted at IASH, the symposium offers a space for deep interdisciplinary conversation, creative exchange, and critical reflection.

For any enquiries, please contact: displacedarts25@gmail.com.

Poster photography : Moyaed Abu Amouna