About the conference

Date: 17 December 2010

Venue: Royal Holloway, University of London (Egham, UK)

The interdisciplinary postgraduate conference at Royal Holloway, University of London focuses on transnationalism and securitization, issues of increasing relevance in both Politics and International Relations, and Media and Film studies. In both disciplines, there is currently a prevailing tendency to conceive of borders as ever increasingly permeable elements in a globalising world. The new communication technologies have certainly reinforced the image that the world becomes a single place. However, a ‘borderless world’ proves to be illusionary as witnessed in the global rise of securitization practices after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, even a bottle of water -at the airport- has started to be perceived as a potential security threat. ‘Transnationalism’ thereby becomes a useful lens through which issues such as securitization, borders, legitimacy, citizenship, memory and solidarity can be re-examined from a fresh theoretical perspective.

Within this framework, the major aims of this international conference are threefold: to question the extent and limitations of transnationalism; to analyse the cultural and political functions of transnational actors and the impact of new communication technologies such as the internet in the contemporary world; and finally to encourage interdisciplinary approaches and critical perspectives in the studies of transnationalism.

Our Sponsors:

Graduate School, Dept. of Media Arts, Annual Fund, New Political Communication Unit, Dept. of Politics&International Relations