Anywhere but Now
Beirut, April 2-4, 2009

International Symposium and Screenings on Landscapes of Belonging in the Eastern Mediterranean
 

The lands along the eastern Mediterranean brim and beyond are still mired in violence long after the end of the last World War. The nation-state’s struggle for ownership of territory and hegemonic identity continues with protracted wars, upwardly spiraling numbers of refugees, generations of stateless persons, ‘trapped’ populations, burnt and flattened villages, crumbling and emptied city-quarters, silenced and over-written histories. This event examines what is obscured by the shallow surface or ensnared within/out the borders and boundaries of the nation-space by reflecting upon dynamics of exclusion, senses of ‘home’, sediments of movement, trajectories of everyday living, maps of memory, ‘impossible’ identity and genealogies of catastrophic loss. Through the interventions of international scholars and a thematic selection of videos and films, this event trawls beneath the visible landscape for that which constantly unsettles the ever-fragile sense of ‘now’.

Detailed Program (pdf 32 pages, 530 KB)

Program Overview (pdf 4 pages, 180 KB)