Workshop Report: Questioning territory: extending concepts of territory through engagement with experience, affect, and embodiment’ – March 2019 in Albany, NY
Workshop Report: Questioning territory: extending concepts of territory through engagement with experience, affect, and embodiment
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Migrations and Mobilities
Announcement by Kate Coddington |
Friday, March 8, 2019
University at Albany, State University of New York
University at Albany, State University of New York
This workshop was organized by Kate Coddington (University at Albany) on behalf of the Mobilities and Migrations Subgroup (Claudio Aporta, Dalhousie University; Aldo Chircop, Dalhousie University; Kate Coddington, University at Albany; Stephanie Kane, Indiana University).
Attendees included:
In this workshop, we explored how feminist thinking can help extend contemporary theories of territory. We drew inspiration from two avenues of critical scholarship that reinforce the contemporary instability and malleability of ideas of territory in framing our questions.
First, we were inspired by changing climatic conditions that are destabilizing formerly solid territory, particularly the icy spaces of the Arctic and the changing terrain of Pacific island nations, forcing new and diverse understandings of what territory might come to mean in these contexts (Elden 2017; Steinberg and Williams-Reed 2018). Aporta’s introductory talk focused on the production and maintenance of Inuit trails in the Canadian Arctic highlighted this unstable context, and Glasberg reinforced the liminality of the geophysical environment in the Arctic with a focus on the art installation by Roni Horn titled the “Library of Water” currently on display in Iceland. Kane’s presentation also took inspiration from the context of the Arctic, which used ecology as a starting point for talking about human/ non-human relations on small Arctic islands and how territory might take inspiration from non-human perspectives.
Secondly, we were also inspired by diverse and pressing indigenous critiques of territory in different parts of the world, from Canada’s Idle No More movement to Aboriginal Australians’ challenges to settler colonial policies (Barker 2015; Cox 2015). How do indigenous approaches towards territory and territoriality upend the stability of the concept, and force new questions about land, ownership, sovereignty and belonging? McNevin focused directly on the experiences of indigenous Australians in a discussion of territory, sovereignty, and activists’ use of indigenous passports to question notions of belonging and citizenship. Narins took up the theme of territory in the Chinese context, considering how the Belt Road Initiative adhered to one of several sovereignty regimes, considering the “geographic shape of political power” in an unstable and very dynamic context. Coddington’s presentation connected ideas from both strands of work, introducing scholarship on political geographies of fertility and indigenous nationalism to consider how territory might be usefully conceptualized as embodied.
The assortment of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives were linked in Steinberg’s presentation, which brought together some of the geophysical questions from the Arctic context with a discussion of the geopolitics of refugee mobility. In his discussion of the political possibilities of the lighthouse, Steinberg reflected on how frozen water is both a space of danger and refuge, a space where the hope of smooth friction-free mobility is replaces with the reality of conflicting and ambiguous relationships with land and sea. This piece highlighted the analytical possibilities of rethinking territory as something made “other” (Gardey 2016: 128).
References:
Gardey, D. (2016). “Territory trouble”: feminist studies and (the question of) hospitality. differences, 27(2), 125-152.
Attendees included:
- Claudio Aporta. Marine Affairs Program. Dalhousie University.
- Kate Coddington. Department of Geography and Planning. University at Albany, State University of New York.
- El Glasberg. Expository Writing Program. NYU.
- Stephanie Kane. Department of International Studies. Indiana University.
- Anne McNevin. Institute for Advanced Study // Department of Politics. The New School.
- Tom Narins. Department of Geography and Planning. University at Albany, State University of New York.
- Phil Steinberg. Department of Geography. Durham University.
In this workshop, we explored how feminist thinking can help extend contemporary theories of territory. We drew inspiration from two avenues of critical scholarship that reinforce the contemporary instability and malleability of ideas of territory in framing our questions.
First, we were inspired by changing climatic conditions that are destabilizing formerly solid territory, particularly the icy spaces of the Arctic and the changing terrain of Pacific island nations, forcing new and diverse understandings of what territory might come to mean in these contexts (Elden 2017; Steinberg and Williams-Reed 2018). Aporta’s introductory talk focused on the production and maintenance of Inuit trails in the Canadian Arctic highlighted this unstable context, and Glasberg reinforced the liminality of the geophysical environment in the Arctic with a focus on the art installation by Roni Horn titled the “Library of Water” currently on display in Iceland. Kane’s presentation also took inspiration from the context of the Arctic, which used ecology as a starting point for talking about human/ non-human relations on small Arctic islands and how territory might take inspiration from non-human perspectives.
Secondly, we were also inspired by diverse and pressing indigenous critiques of territory in different parts of the world, from Canada’s Idle No More movement to Aboriginal Australians’ challenges to settler colonial policies (Barker 2015; Cox 2015). How do indigenous approaches towards territory and territoriality upend the stability of the concept, and force new questions about land, ownership, sovereignty and belonging? McNevin focused directly on the experiences of indigenous Australians in a discussion of territory, sovereignty, and activists’ use of indigenous passports to question notions of belonging and citizenship. Narins took up the theme of territory in the Chinese context, considering how the Belt Road Initiative adhered to one of several sovereignty regimes, considering the “geographic shape of political power” in an unstable and very dynamic context. Coddington’s presentation connected ideas from both strands of work, introducing scholarship on political geographies of fertility and indigenous nationalism to consider how territory might be usefully conceptualized as embodied.
The assortment of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives were linked in Steinberg’s presentation, which brought together some of the geophysical questions from the Arctic context with a discussion of the geopolitics of refugee mobility. In his discussion of the political possibilities of the lighthouse, Steinberg reflected on how frozen water is both a space of danger and refuge, a space where the hope of smooth friction-free mobility is replaces with the reality of conflicting and ambiguous relationships with land and sea. This piece highlighted the analytical possibilities of rethinking territory as something made “other” (Gardey 2016: 128).
References:
Gardey, D. (2016). “Territory trouble”: feminist studies and (the question of) hospitality. differences, 27(2), 125-152.
Indeterminate and Changing Environments: Law, the Anthropocene, and the World
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