Speakers: Sabika Shah Povia (blogger / freelance journalist), Giorgio de Finis (MAAM Museum), Nick Mai (University of Leicester / film maker)
Chair: Pierluigi Musarò (Università di Bologna)
Through different perspectives and complementary interpretations, the seminar explores the relationship between mobility and the social imaginary. How is it possible to approach the Other and Elsewhere by nurturing an imaginary that does not give in to fear and the impulse to exclude? With what tools and actions can society be pushed towards openness and hospitality, working on our perceptions, on our ability to listen to different others and enter into relationships with them?
To follow, from 5.30 pm, screening of the documentary Travel by Nick Mai
Travel (63 min) presents the life story of Joy, a Nigerian migrant woman who sells sex in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris. Joy left Nigeria to help her family after her father’s death. She knew she would sell sex before leaving, but she was unaware of the hard work and living conditions she would face in France. The journey explores Joy’s experiences of self-fulfillment and exploitation in the sex industry, depicting how she gradually reinterprets her own initial experience of migration and freedom as also characterized by exploitation and trafficking.