Communications and Media Annual Lecture: Koen Leurs on Digital Migration

Free and open to all.

Communications and Media Annual Lecture: Koen Leurs on Digital Migration

Wednesday 21 February 2024

Lecture Theatre A

Doors open at 5pm

Lecture begins at 5:30pm

In contemporary discussions on migration, digital technology is often seen as a ‘smart’ disruptive tool used by governments to surveil and protect borders while monitoring the movement of people in more efficient ways. But the reality is more complex.

In his new book Digital Migration, Dr Koen Leurs explores a variety of themes that reflect the multi-nuanced relationship between digital technology and migration.

Using an inter-disciplinary approach and covering case studies from the Global North as well as the Global South, Koen Leurs embarks on a critical journey into the contradictions, tensions and hopes that characterize the digital migration landscape. From the critical role that digital infrastructures play in migration management to migrants’ use of devices, platforms and networks to connect and survive, from the power of digital representations of migrants (and how these can be contested) to the realities of transnational families, this book invites us to rethink the boundaries of digital migration research.

In his talk, Koen Leurs will present the book by reviewing commitments and challenges of doing digital migration studies. He will draw on examples from his recent studies on the screening of smartphones of asylum seekers at the Dutch borders as well as young migrants’ critical media literacies.

Koen Leurs’ presentation will be followed by a response from Dr Sara Marino, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, critical migration scholar, and co-founder of the Digital Culture and Economies Research Hub.

You are warmly invited to join the post event drinks, served from 7:30 pm.

Speakers

Koen Leurs is an Associate Professor in Gender, Media and Migration Studies at the Graduate Gender Program, Department of Media and Culture, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Sara Marino is Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media at London College of Communication and author of the book “Mediating the refugee crisis. Digital Solidarity, Humanitarian Technologies and Border Regimes” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).

The event is organized by the Digital Cultures and Economies Research Hub and the Communications and Media Programme. Free and open to all.

Discount code of 25% on book purchases with code UK23AUTHOR

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