Refugees from Afghanistan or Somalia, Iran or Cameroon, who have fled persecution, conflicts or poverty, often travel for years across deserts, mountains and seas. Alone or with their family, they face natural hardships, armed groups, police violence, and people’s hostility, in search of a safe place. Based on a five-year ethnography at the border between Italy and France, the lecture will connect scenes from fieldwork and writings, exploring the politics and poetics of exile. This research, which has been conducted with Anne-Claire Defossez, sociologist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, has received the support of the Nomis Foundation in Zürich.
The lecture will be followed by a conversation between Marielle Macé and Didier Fassin.
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The Collegium Helveticum is the joint Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) of the ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, and the Zurich University of the Arts. We aim to provide a meeting place and forum for dialogue between the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, engineering, medical science and the arts.