Migration, Law and the Image. Beyond the Veil of I

This lecture by Prof. WJT Mitchell aims at the convergence of three
disciplines: 1) the law, with its entire edifice of judicial practice and
political philosophy; 2) migration, as the movement and settlement of
living things, especially (but not exclusively) human beings, across the
boundaries between distinct habitats; 3) iconology, the theory of images
across the media, including verbal and visual images, metaphors and
figures of speech as well as visual representations. The lecture argues
that immigration in our time has ceased to be a merely transitional phase
in human life, and threatens to become a permanent condition for growing
numbers of people. This poses a radical challenge to liberal notions of
universal human equality, which depend, paradoxically, on philosophies of
exclusion and the policing of borders to protect actually existing liberal
polities. The lecture is followed by the responses of Prof. Parvati Nair (Quen Mary)
an expert of Migration Studies and Dr Ingrid Boccardi (UCL) specialized on
Migration and Laws. This event was sponsorised by the UCL Grand Challenges (Intercultural
Interaction), the Centre for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary
(University of London) and the UCL Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Chair
and Organizer: Dr Fedrica Mazzara.