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Other Southampton events

Facing ‘Borders’: Oral histories & invisible walls

Step-free access.
Past event - 2019
22 May Doors open 18:30
Event 18:45-22:00
Belgium and Blues, 184 Above Bar Street,
Southampton SO14 7DW
Sold Out!
In a time of Brexit, ‘immigration’ and ‘borders’ are hot topics. Join us as we showcase the importance of storytelling in understanding peoples’ everyday lives and identities with Dr. Heidi Armbruster; while University of Cambridge MPhil student, Dominziana Turcatti highlights the many challenges facing migrants in our communities and the ways in which we can come together.

 

Prizes donated by Bookshop Alehouse, Crafty Fox, and Unity Brewing Co.

 

(photo: ©Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)

Border Stories

Dr. Heidi Armbruster (Social Anthropologist and University Lecturer in German Studies at the University of Southampton.)
When the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989/90 a new era of a borderless, more peaceful world seemed on the horizon. However, this was not to happen. Around the world many new border walls have been built since, often demarcating old and new geographies of conflict. By looking at research I conducted on the former German-German border I will address the importance of storytelling and oral history in bringing to life how East-West divisions became part of people’s everyday lives and identities, and continue to affect the present.

“Mi Familia Es Mi Motor ” London’s Latin American Migrant Mothers and Fathers Facing, Circumnavigating, and Breaking (Invisible) Borders

Domiziana Turcatti (MPhil student in Sociology of Marginality and Exclusion, University of Cambridge)
When we think of ‘borders’, we often ignore the invisible borders many need to confront in their everyday lives. My research, draws attention to the legal, economic, and socio-cultural borders facing London based Latin American parents and the multiple strategies migrant families deploy to cope, navigate, and even breakdown everyday (invisible) walls. In a time of Brexit, austerity measures, and increasing inequalities, an awareness and understanding of the multiple borders faced by migrants is essential for us to come together as a more empathic and cohesive society.
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