Catalonia versus Australia, in an international seminar on Democracy and Immigration
The Center for Australian and Transnational Studies of the University of Barcelona (CEAT) is organizing the international seminar Democracy and Immigration: The cases of Catalonia and Australia. Despite the tradition and experience of the Center in the organization of international conferences, this is the first time CEAT promotes a workshop to compare and contrast two realities: the Catalan and the Australian one. It will take place on May 30 and 31 in the head offices of CEAT, in the Faculty of Philology. Attendance is free but previous registration is required.
The Center for Australian and Transnational Studies of the University of Barcelona (CEAT) is organizing the international seminar Democracy and Immigration: The cases of Catalonia and Australia. Despite the tradition and experience of the Center in the organization of international conferences, this is the first time CEAT promotes a workshop to compare and contrast two realities: the Catalan and the Australian one. It will take place on May 30 and 31 in the head offices of CEAT, in the Faculty of Philology. Attendance is free but previous registration is required.
The program of the sessions includes large working fields on the concept of democracy and immigration, such as history, language, literature, education and science and medicine.
On the one hand, these sessions will reflect on the historical perspective: the development of democracy in Europe and Australia, citizensʼ rights and immigrantsʼ rights, welcome processes, etc. Regarding this topic, the founder and director of CEAT, Sue Ballyn, will give the conference “Catalonia and Australia: Early Bilateral Migrations and the Story of Ramon Porta”; and Vanessa Castejón, adjunct lecturer in University of Paris 13 and expert on local policies, self-determination and sovereignty, who will take part in the seminar with the conference “Self-determination and in-betweenness”.
Moreover, the seminar will also analyse the sociolinguistic environment, mechanisms of integration or exclusion through languages and language transmission. In this field, the researcher from CUSC- Center for Sociolinguistics and Communication Research of the UB, Avel·li Flors-Mas, expert on educational sociolinguistics, language policies and studies with youngsters, languages and social identities, will take part in the seminar with the conference “Immigració i llengües a Catalunya: de les polítiques als resultats”.
Also, it will analyse the origin of authors and presence of immigration in literary works. Regarding this topic, the lecturer of Philosophy of the UB Núria Sara Miras i Boronat will talk about literature and exile: uprooting, outcasts, and the ambiguity of memory; the tenured university lecturer of Catalan and Spanish Studies from the University of Monash and expert on identity and literature issues, Steward King, will give the conference “Immigració i literature nacional: els models australià i català”, and the philologist of the UB Montserrat Camps will give the conference “Una lectura actual de la tragèdia grega: literatura, democràcia i la figura de lʼaltre”.
The seminar does not forget about educational experiences aimed at immigration, development of pedagogies, shelter, etc. Lecturer Josep Baró Casanovas will talk about the Catalan public teaching system, with the conference “Democracy, Immigration and the School: the Case of a Public School in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona”.
All speakers taking part in the seminar are listed here.