About

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.