Flight and Refuge: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Migration, Sanctuary, and Belonging

Spearheaded by the Center for German Studies and in collaboration with fifteen units at UVa, this year-long initiative will bring some of the top scholars in the field of migration and refugee studies to Grounds for a speaker series and concluding conference. The project will focus on three areas where "flight" and "refuge" converge: (1) people and spaces, (2) cultural encounters, (3) institutional responses. Concrete examples to be discussed range from the promises and challenges of sanctuary cities to the redrawing of walls and borders; from the encounter with refugees from afar to the singling out of "strangers" within; from the impact and legitimacy of executive orders to the various forms and articulations of civic responsibility. We will approach these topics from a variety of methodological and disciplinary angles, including political, anthropological, historical, cultural, ethical, religious and philosophical approaches.