Conference of the research network Gender and Migration @ Niedersachsen
28. & 29. Oktober 2016
Place: Library Auditorium, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg

The conference explores from a variety of perspectives how migration processes are structured by heteronormative concepts of identity, sexuality and family. How are migrating subjects constructed as heterosexual and defined as definitively either male or female? And what are the specific conditions of flight and migration for persons who do not conform to these normative constructions (LGBTIQ)?
These questions are closely linked to specific processes of national definition or redefinition and social stratification on the basis of inclusion and exclusion via sex and gender, legality and illegality. What are the conditions that lead to the understanding of migrants as being either a threat to national integrity or as their being instrumentalised in order to confirm the self-perception of the West as liberal?
The conference also questions the validity of Western/European ascriptive labels such as 'homosexual', 'heterosexual' or queer: what does this mean for migrants' concepts of self? Further, it challenges the idea of queer migration as being a migration from 'oppression' to 'freedom' and suggests a focus on the construction, regulation and governance of those sexual and gendered identities beyond the heteronormative paradigm in the context of migration processes and migration regimes.
At the intersection of Queer Studies, Gender Studies and Migration Studies, the conferences offers an interdisciplinary forum for exchange between members of the network "Gender and Migration @ Niedersachsen" and to national and international experts in the field. It also aims at an exchange with activists and practitioners. Special attention will be given to young and emerging scholars who are included in the list of invited speakers and also encouraged to answer the Call for Papers.

The opening lectures will be given by Karma R. Chávez (University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States), Randi Gressgård (University of Bergen, Norway) and Zeynep Kivilcim (Istanbul University, Turkey).

"Queering Migration Studies" is the second conference held by the research network "Gender and Migration @ Niedersachsen" founded in 2015. Participants from outside Lower-Saxony are also most welcome. For more information, please check: www.nds-lagen.de/forschung/migration-und-gender/

The conference language is English.

Registration at

Concept: Lydia Potts, Sylvia Pritsch, Renata Choinka, Verena Hucke