Digital registration of migrants as co-production of citizens, territory and Europe

STS-Migtec & Processing Citizenship joint workshop has materialized!

April 2, 2023

On the 21 and 22 March, almost 40 scholars reached Bologna to attend the workshop organized by STS-Migtec and the ERC Processing Citizenship team, at the University of Bologna, Department of Philosophy and Communication, and online.

Having launched the call for papers on November 2022, the joint committee STS-MIGTEC and ERC Processing Citizenship team selected papers and organized a total number of six panels. Scholars at different career stages presented their ongoing and published research contributions at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS), critical migration, security, surveillance and border studies.

On the morning of the 22nd, during a roundtable discussion, Annalisa Pelizza, Aristotle Tympas, and Koen Leurs discussed experiences in grant writing, creating scholarly networks and collaboration, and publication strategies for scholars in the fields of STS, critical border and migration studies.

These were the final panels:

• Panel #1: Emerging Models of Digital Identity in Migration Governance, Humanitarian Aid and Development Assistance. Convenors: Aaron Martin (Maastricht University & Tilburg University, Netherlands), Margie Cheesman (King’s College London, UK), Emrys Schoemaker (The Graduate Institute Geneva, Switzerland; London School of Economics, UK; Cornell Tech, USA), Keren Weitzberg (Queen Mary University of London, UK)

• Panel #2: Mediatizing claim making, publics, and citizenship. On ambivalent technologies for migrants on the move. Convenors: Silvan Pollozek (European University Viadrina, Germany), Maria Ullrich (University of Bonn, Germany), Olga Usachova (University of Padova, Italy)

• Panel #3: Law, Technology and Border Control. Convenors: Francisco Pereira Coutinho, Emellin de Oliveira (NOVA School of Law, Portugal)

• Panel #4: Situating long-term implications of registering and identifying practices. Convenors: Chiara Loschi, Annalisa Pelizza, Paul Trauttmansdorff (University of Bologna, Italy)

• Open panel #1: Viapolitics, knowledge production, and migratory appropriations. Moderators: Nina Amelung (University of Lisbon, Portugal), Silvan Pollozek (European University Viadrina, Germany)

• Open panel #2: Data assemblages, algorithmic governance, and migrant re-presentations. Moderators: Ivan Josipovic (University of Vienna, Austria), Paul Trauttmansdorff (University of Bologna, Italy)

The organizers of the workshop together with the panel conveners decided to reschedule Panel #1, on 30 march 2023, due to the situation of strike action taking place at UK universities throughout the workshop days of March 21-22. The solution should express solidarity with the struggle against precarious working conditions at universities and in academia, in the UK and beyond.

We wish to share with you some pictures taken during these intense and thought-provoking days!