The role of place and resistance in shifting migration regimes

8th – 9th June 2026, Queen Mary University of London

Queen Mary’s interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Migration and the (B)Orders Centre for the Study of Borders, Migration and Displacement are co-hosting a two-day conference exploring the role of place and resistance in shifting migration regimes.

Our focus this year is on the urgent need to challenge anti-migrant rhetoric, action and disinformation. The systems shaping migration, border control, and related scholarship and practice are fracturing, as seen in widespread deportations, border violence, desensitisation, and brutality in the UK and beyond. In response, we propose a critical engagement with the concept of place to foster alternative forms of knowledge and to support a politics of resistance and solidarity grounded in compassion, empathy and hope. In so doing, we seek to delineate foundational principles for a future beyond hostile border and immigration schemes.

Bringing together scholars, practitioners, and people with lived experiences of displacement, illegalisation and criminalisation, we remain committed to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and co-production of knowledge to redress epistemological imbalances in migration and border studies.

The conference will consist of plenary talks, presentations, and panel discussions with practitioners. We welcome diverse contributions, including but not limited to academic papers, posters, photo essays, art exhibitions, performances, spoken word, poetry, and film on the following themes:

• Spatial politics of belonging, relationality and entanglements, and how place shapes compassion, empathy and hope.

• Mapping and thinking across place-based transformations in laws and policies

• Critical reflection on engagements with the public, policymakers, funders, and subjects of our research.

• Envision how to build visible, constructive collaborations across academic, public, policy and praxis communities.

• Practices of prefiguration and resistance to regimes of cruelty and hostility

• Critical methodologies that interrogate what we do and how we do it in research on migration and/ borders studies research.

• A space for broader conversations about our practice and outputs

Header photo: "Battle over; war not won (2/2)" by Darkroom Daze / CC BY 2.0

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Host or Publisher Centre for the Study of Migration