Conference organised by University of Westminster’s
Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI)
Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM)
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
According to UNHCR, globally there are now more than 65 million forcibly displaced persons, including 21 million refugees, who have left their homes as a result of conflict, persecution, famine, and environmental disasters. Meanwhile, migrants have also courageously left their homes of origin behind to voluntarily pursue a better life often motivated by freedom, education, economic opportunities or to reunite with family.
While many are tackling the topical challenges of migration and refugees few, if any, are addressing it from a cultural narrative or cultural rights perspective. The Rights and Might conference, organised by an interdisciplinary group of University of Westminster faculties representing media, art, design and social sciences, emphasises the need to amplify the voices and power of refugee and migrant narrativity while connecting dialogues and discussions to policies and inclusion/exclusion practices of host societies.
This conference offers a meaningful cross-cultural and interdisciplinary engagement with hitherto neglected refugee, migrant and exilic experiences presented through a film festival alongside theory, practice and policy discussions aimed at policymakers, academics and students, as well as to wider publics/citizens. It brings together international filmmakers, musicians, and artists who are involved in capturing and responding to individual stories of struggles and successes of individual migrants and refugees living and working in the UK, from the Georgian period to the present day, with policymakers, practitioners and academics working globally on migration and refugee issues.
Rights and Might encourages discussion of the hidden opportunities and unspoken challenges faced by migrants and refugees. The objective is to unravel little known personal and positive stories of migrants in changing contexts and to detail their agency, including their vital contributions to reshaping cultural landscapes and artistic expression.
Registration
The conference, held 21-24 June 2017, will consist of an opening reception, a keynote, a radio industry panel, 9 parallel panels and an artist’s presentation. There will also be a concurrent film festival held 24-25 June 2017 at Regent Street Cinema. The conference fee is £45, with a concessionary rate of £22 for students, which covers conference documentation, refreshments and administrative costs.
Please register to attend the conference.
Programme
Download the conference programme.
Film Festival
Film festival passes and tickets for the individual films are sold separately through the Regent Street Cinema box office. A Rights and Might Film Festival pass is available for £25 to the general public and £15 for conference registrants and individual tickets are £12 each regular price and £7.00 each for students and conference participants. The Sunday film shorts program 11:00am-3:30 pm is free to all.
Rights & Might Film Festival details passes and tickets are on sale on the Regent Street Cinema website.