Call for papers for the Dossier “Memories of exile in anthropology”

Edward Saïd's reference to exile as an experience that “strangely compels us to think,” although terrible to live through, an incurable fracture, is well known. For the author, in his “Reflections on Exile” (Saïd, 2003), the difference between the exiles of yesterday and those of our time is one of scale. Since the 20th century, we have been living in an era of mass displacement.

However, when the scale of the phenomenon  on the international level changes,  in the post-war period, the ways of naming it, and, thus, of categorizing it also changes to make it intelligible. Starting in 1950, the newly founded UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), part of the United Nations (UN), established its mission to provide protection and assistance to “refugees.” A year later, with the signing of the Geneva Convention, international refugee law made it possible to inscribe human displacement within the framework of humanitarian grammar. The treaty created the legal basis for defining who is a refugee and who is not, as well as their rights and duties, but was limited to individuals from Europe. With the 1967 Protocol, the status was expanded, eliminating its geographical and temporal boundaries, and finally, in 1995, the UN General Assembly designated UNHCR as responsible for the protection and assistance of refugees worldwide.

This event of global impact did not prevent the permanence, diffusion, and circulation of other social languages mobilized to define what Avtar Brah (1996) called “spaces of diaspora” - where the fissure and fusion between cultures intersect, giving rise to the redefinition of identities and borders, both local and global. “Diasporas,” “(i)migrations,” “expulsions,” “displacements” as well as “refuges,” have come to constitute different signifiers of the experience of exile, not only in human rights organizations, but also in social movements, public policies, the media, and everyday discourse. It was, therefore, through different discursive and institutional domains that the notion of “refugee” and/or “being in exile” was constituted (Malki, 1995).

The notion of “exile,” despite its ancient Greco-Latin and Judeo-Christian origins, stands out in more recent contexts related to the 20th century, such as Latin American military dictatorships and other scenarios of state violence, wars, and conflicts. Strangely, among anthropological studies focused on the displacements that mark contemporary global society, exile, the emblem of banishment, is rarely or only secondarily referred to. If, as Didier Fassin (2011) proposed, humanitarianism and the status of “refugees” contributed to the depoliticization of experiences of banishment, with an emphasis on ‘compassion’ that would lead to indifference, the same cannot be said of experiences referred to as “exile” in the period in question; on the contrary, by their very inscription in what is understood as “politics,” they relate to different processes of social construction of the ‘victim’ and ways of categorizing “violence.” Thus, by placing “exile” at the center of the debate, this dossier aims to bring together anthropological studies that, in diverse ethnographic contexts, seek to understand the meanings of its forms of classification, the experiences and trajectories of the “exiled,” as well as their inscription in different regimes of memory. 

The proposal for this dossier arises from our own ongoing research and the maturing of discussions that have been taking place among its proponents in the field of research on memories of exile during the Latin American military dictatorships. Thus, our own insertion in this debate stems from this historical period, in which the experience of exile was a fundamental turning point between revolutionary and humanitarian values. The incorporation of new repertoires, such as feminism, and new forms of political action, such as testimonial expression, are examples of this scenario. In addition, we hope that the dossier will receive articles related to other historical and ethnographic contexts, such as dictatorships in Africa, Europe, and Asia, as well as situations of armed conflict and genocide, taking the anthropological concept of “exile” as the center of reflection.

Marking the 60th anniversary of the military coup in Brazil in 2024, we invite authors to question the absence, or nebulous presence, of the category of exile in anthropology, as well as to present analyses of the ways in which exile is inscribed in the lives of individuals and communities and gives rise to memories. From this perspective, we seek to bring together works that aim to understand the forms that forced displacement practices take in contemporary societies; the modes, languages, and circumstances in which experiences of exile are expressed; generational specificities in the ways of experiencing exile; and differences and particularities in relation to returning or not returning to the territory of origin. We hope that the sources of the research will be heterogeneous, including literary, artistic, and audiovisual materials, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork.

 

Bibliography

BRAH, Avtar. Cartographies of diaspora. Contesting identities. London: Routledge, 1996.

FASSIN, Didier. Humanitarian Reason: A Moral History of the Present. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.

MALKKI, Liisa.  Refugees and Exile: From ‘Refugee Studies’ to the National Order of Things. Annual Review of Anthropology, [s. l.], v. 24, p. 495-523, 1995.

SAID, Edward. Reflexões sobre o exílio. In: SAID, Edward. Reflexões sobre o exílio e outros ensaios. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2003. p.46-60.

 

Organizers: Cynthia Sarti (UNIFESP/Brazil), Felipe Magaldi (UNC/CONICET/Argentina), Liliana Sanjurjo (UERJ/Brazil) and Aline Lopes Murillo (UFAL/Brazil)

Deadline: December 16, 2025.

 

NOTE: As we have more than one open call, it is mandatory to indicate in the “Comments to the editors” field that the submission is for the Dossier “Memories of exile”.

Contributions can be sent until December 16, 2025, through the journal's electronic system: https://periodicos.uff.br/antropolitica/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions