Remains: Exploring New Frontiers of Fear, Indifference and Love in the Mediterranean

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The language of fear used by politicians and the media (Chebel d'Appollonia 2015) is producing an increasing divide between peoples and governments across the world. However, the need to improve one's life condition is bound-less (Jackson 2013), as seen in high-risk forms of migration across reinforced borderlines (UNHCR report). At the border, the divide between what Andersson (2019) has called the 'no go world' (parts of the globe portrayed as dangerous and out of bounds) and the 'rich world' becomes blurred into a series of unexpected encounters that exceed taken-for-granted stereotypes. As a contemporary symbol of the frontier for undocumented migration in Europe, the Italian island of Lampedusa, where I conducted extensive fieldwork during my doctoral research (2016-2017), becomes a mirror of a global order of fear and separation, but also a potential space of cohesion and reciprocity. In this Fellowship I will build on my doctoral research on this migratory frontier of separation and reciprocity via a one-year engagement with the local community of Lampedusa. The aim of the research engagement is to examine, by means of ethnography and visual methods, how contemporary encounters (voluntary or accidental) with various abject remains (objects, stories, pictures and corpses) of undocumented migrants by locals and artists in Lampedusa generate distance or allows for mutuality in the context of undocumented migration in the Mediterranean since the 1990s. Rather than reinforcing the dominant portrayal of migration evidenced in media and political representations of Lampedusa as a stage of tragedy and death (Aime 2018), the project builds upon a phenomenological approach aimed at unveiling the perspectives and interpretations (from storytelling to art forms) of migrant remains held by members of the local community [activists, artists, and local families] of Lampedusa. I will engage migration workers, artists and teachers through workshops, seminars, and public events to facilitate an in-depth reflection on what lies behind the media and political narratives of border zones. This focus [on interpretation and exchange] will help analytically to challenge the conventional concept of border as a space of separation and division, while also allowing for exploring innovative forms of ethnographic writing and methodological approaches. This will significantly open up potential pathways to impact and encourage a critical re-evaluation of the legal and ethical challenges of irregular migration in the contemporary world. Drawing upon my previous PhD research, this Fellowship will allow me to maximise the routes to impact by:1. Publishing two academic articles, a monograph, and working toward publication of a fieldwork diary book arising from my doctoral research.2. Completing a small-scale research project, framed as a form of knowledge exchange activity for disseminating and reflecting on my PhD research with key organization members, activists, locals and teachers in schools on Lampedusa. This element ensures that my doctoral research is shared with the key participants with the intention of building a functional working network and stimulating imagination and critical evaluation within the community of Lampedusa and beyond it.3. Developing research networks and collaborations, both within the world of academia, with aid workers, medical practitioners, activists, and policy makers in the educational sector. These collaborative networks will provide invaluable career development opportunities enabling me to establish a track record in the publication of high quality academic work, receiving feedback on draft project proposals and developing potential future collaborations.4. Working on a research proposal for the Marie S. Curie 2021 call to continue my research in the context of everyday life in borderland situations and the production of memory, pushing further my research findings.