Re-imagining Climate (Im)mobilities in the Panicocene

Program

8-9 May 2025, Durham University, W309 (Geography West building)

Introduction

In a context of growing concern about the impacts of climate change and increasing alarmism toward migration phenomena, the possibility of “environmental migration” attracts considerable attention. What are the (in)desired effects of such an encounter? This volume sets out to decolonize the imaginary, seeking to deconstruct privilege (primarily that of the researcher), and use intersectional, decolonial, and feminist lenses to decentralize the image and construct new paradigms about narratives about the nexus between climate change and migration.

The goal is to accompany readers to a new concept, that of Panicocene, the age of panic, a time when the two phenomena that characterize the contemporary meet in a unique narrative, an emergency squared that causes stasis and ineptitude.

Panicocene thus encapsulates both the state of the art of research conducted in recent years and the starting point for future research. Panicocene, in fact, is also the title of the Marie Curie Global Fellowship project, which investigates the narratives and imaginaries of the nexus between the climate crisis and mobilities, to which the book provides an initial critical reflection.

8

th

May

Morning

10.00 – 10.30 . Registration and Coffee

10.30 – 11.00 . Welcome from Andrew Baldwin and Elena Giacomelli

11.00 – 12.30 . Keynote – Mimi Sheller

12.30 - 13.00

. Lunch

Afternoon

13.30 – 15.15 . Session 1: Climate (Im)mobilities in Narratives, Media and Representation – Chair: Andrew Baldwin

  • Beyond the Headlines: Unpacking the Predominant Climate Mobility Narratives in the Western Media – Ann-Christine Link, Thais Franca, Malte Vandamme, Thomas Brenner
  • Climate Change and Migration on YouTube: Diverse Framings Behind Climate Refugee Clickbait – Sarah Haider-Nash, David Durand-Delacre
  • News media framing of future ‘climate migrants’: victims or racialised border security threat? – Sian Cowman
  • Climate change or social change? – Kirsty Styles
  • Visual stones encompassing climate-induced migration and mobility in Iran – Shahriar Khonsari – ONLINE

15.15 - 15.45

. Coffe Break

15.45 – 17.30 . Climate (Im)mobilities in Literature, Art and Popular Culture – Chair: Elena Giacomelli

  • Dead/Extreme Cities: Exploring the Climate Migration Imaginaries of J.G. Ballard and Doris Lessing – Matthew Whittle
  • Political Violence, Climate Change and Migration: A Case Study of Omar El Akkad’s Work – Sophia Brown
  • Reframing the Climate Crisis on Screen: A Practice-Led Analysis of How New AI-VFX and Narrative Modes Can Re-Engage Environmental Documentary Viewers – Anna Broinowski – ONLINE
  • Documenting Disappearing Spaces: Everyday Acts of Eco-Grief – Lucinda Newns
  • (Re)imagining Climate (Im)mobilities in Europe and the US – Judith Keller, Leonie Tuitjer

Evening

17.30 . Wine and Aperitivo

9

th

May

Morning

09.00 – 09.30 . Registration and Coffee

09.30 – 10.45 . Workshop – Climate Outreach – Fahmida Miah

10.45 – 11.15 . Break

11.15 – 13.15 . Session 3: Visualizing Climate (Im)mobilities – Chair: Pierluigi Musarò

  • Infrequent Flyers. Adventures in the Aesthetics of Staying Put – Nicholas Ferguson, Gitanjali Poluru, Gurdev Singh, Nacir Sheikh, Aditi SunejaPARTIALLY ONLINE
  • Digital Storytelling of the Future: Imagining and Planning for “Climate Migration” – Myria Georgiou
  • Seeing the Future City: The Visual Politics of Climate Migration in High-Resolution Heatmaps – Richard Waters
  • Mediating Climate and Mobility through Chinese Digital Ecological Art – Sin Yi ChoiONLINE
  • Stories of More-Than-Human Migration Between Bangladesh and Italy as Kaleidoscopes of Future Cohabitations – Elisa BertuzzoONLINE

13.15 - 14.15

. Lunch

Afternoon

14.15 – 16.00. Session 4: Climate (Im)mobilities in the Modern World – Chair: Sarah Haider-Nash

  • Climate, Living Environment and Place Attachment – The Interaction Between Weather Conditions and Memory of the Living Spaces – Yun Gao, Adrian Pitts
  • Externalizing Mobility (In)Justice: Intergovernmental and Non-Governmental Awareness Campaigns on Climate Change-Induced Migration – Valentina Cappi, Pierluigi Musarò
  • Visual Narratives and Frames of climate change-induced migration in Spanish Newspapers – Carolina Rebollo-Diaz, Pilar Morales-Giner, Cristina Ramos
  • Shifting Paradigms, Shifting Narratives: From Sovereignty to Solidarity for the Climate Refugee Subject – Irene Sacchetti
  • Ethnomorphosis and the Climate Migrant: Commonalities, Mobilization and Persistence of Malthusian Framings – Soumaya Majdoub

16.00 – 16.45 . Discussant Commentary and Q&A

Conference Committee: Elena Giacomelli, Andrew Baldwin, Ava Farnsworth

Re-imagining Climate (Im)mobilities in the Panicocene

Program

8-9 May 2025, Durham University, W309 (Geography West building)