Globalizing the Debate on Migrations at Stony Brook University

November 12-13. The two-days conference “Migrations and Transnational Identities:  Crossing Borders, Bridging Disciplines”, held on the campus of Stony Brook University, aims to launch a college-wide initiative on migrations in global perspective. 

On November 12 -13, the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook University, in collaboration with the Alfonse M. D’Amato Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, will present the international conference, “Migrations and Transnational Identities:  Crossing Borders, Bridging Disciplines.”

The event will take place on the campus of Stony Brook University, in the Charles B. Wang Center and the Humanities Building on Thursday, November 12 from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. and Friday, November 13 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. 

 

“Given the centrality of migration in transforming cultures internationally, this conference serves as a launching pad for what we hope will become a college-wide initiative dealing with migrations in global perspective,” said Professor E. Ann Kaplan, Director of the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook.    

 

Commenting on the purpose of the initiative, Professor Peter Carravetta, Alfonse M. D’Amato Chair, added that “in this conference we intend to explore the relevance and significance of migrations in various parts of the world, and prospects for the 21st century. Migration, indeed,  is not a marginal dynamic in the lives of nations, but what informs the birth, growth and transformation of societies”. 

The International conference will be enriched by the presence of numerous speakers, who will deeply contribute to its works through personal and indepth intervenes.


They are:  Angela Biancofiore (University of Montpellier), Norma Bouchard (University of Connecticut), Peter Carravetta (Stony Brook University), Juan Flores (New York University), Armando Gnisci (University of Rome), Iona Man-Cheong (Stony Brook University), Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel (Rutgers University) and Martin A. Schain (New York University).  Besides them, there will also be another two keynote speakers.  Frederick Buell (Queens College, CUNY) will speak on “Immigration and the Environment:  Old Conflicts, Present Urgencies,” and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco (New York University) will close the conference with his lecture, “Rethinking Immigration in the Age of Global Vertigo.” 

 

The guests and the audience will be entertained with a full calendar of lateral events that includes a theatrical performance, “What Killed Marcelo Lucero?” to be held on Thursday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wang Center Theater.  Defined “a strong and moving production,” by Prof. John Lutterbie (Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and the Associate Director for Community Outreach of the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook) this work, conceived and directed by Margarita Espada-Santos (Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja) is a provocative, bilingual work that explores the murder of a Salvadoran immigrant at the hands of teenagers on Long Island who singled him out because he was Hispanic.    

Besides the theatrical performance, other cultural activities of great relevance have also been planned. Among them, the film-and-discussion series, “Migrations On-Screen,” that feature films introduced and presented by Stony Brook faculty.  La Promess (1996), to be screened on Friday, November 6 at 11:30 a.m. in Humanities 1008, and introduced by Professors Kaplan and Professor John Lutterbie, is a film by the Belgian Dardenne brothers that is an uncompromising coming-of-age story and a look at a Europe in conflict over immigrants and their often harsh treatment.   

In This World (2002), instead, is an ambitious road movie in which two young Afghani cousins travel overland from Pakistan to the United Kingdom in search of a better life. The picture, screened on Friday, December 4 at 11:30 a.m. in Humanities 1008, will be introduced by Professor Gallya Lahav 

Finally, the exhibition “Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals,” is on view in the Humanities Institute Gallery, Humanities 1013, from November 2-December 18, 2009, Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.  

 

In addition to funding provided by The Humanities Institute and the D’Amato Chair, the conference is co-sponsored by the FAHSS Interdisciplinary Award and the Department of European Languages, Literatures and Cultures.  Additional sponsors include the Departments of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies; English; Hispanic Languages and Literature; Political Science and Theatre Arts; and the Long Island Unitarian Universalist Foundation.  

The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required.  For more information please go to www.stonybrook.edu/humanities or www.stonybrook.edu/eurolangs or call Olivia Mattis at (631) 632-9957.