The “Network for Critical Border and Migration Regime Research” (kritnet) was founded in 2008 to support critical views on, and create knowledge about, migration, racism, and border policies from a decidedly emancipatory perspective. Situated at the intersection of university, art and movements, the network seeks to combine these different approaches to achieve a broader scope and trigger public interventions. Presently over 200 individuals, ranging from artists to academics to political activists, are involved in the network. This interest points to the urgency in creating a critical and interdisciplinary discursive space that addresses the issues at hand. It is even more significant given that conventional academic research and education in this field are influenced by dominant, state-centered discourses. Further, little attention has been given to these issues by institutionalized academics.
Since its founding, the network has already received a reputation in the academic and political realm with its biannual meetings, networking projects, publications and political interventions in the public discourse. Examples are its statements “Democracy instead of Integration”, a reaction to the Sarrazin theses, and “Freedom instead of Frontex”.
Now is the time to confront the globalization of the European border and migration regime with an engaged knowledge production at the juncture of activism, culture, and scholarly work. Now is the time to confront EU-financed, neoliberal research and its hegemonic knowledge production with another notion of academic knowledge production and to pursue practical steps for networking. The context of the dOCUMENTA (13) is an excellent venue for this task, and offers several connective points. Furthermore, this is a fitting occasion to bring our ideas to the public. For this purpose, we are planning a three-day symposium.
During the dOCUMENTA (13), the goal of kritnet’s 8th meeting is to internationalize our debates on current political issues as well as our discussions on the future of critical migration and border regime research. We are inviting well-known scholars, activists, and artists from different countries and regions around the world (North and Central America, Europe, Latin America, North Africa, Eastern Europe) who work from a critical perspective to share their experiences, research approaches, and ideas of organizing. Those attending the meeting will have the opportunity to reflect cooperatively on their own research and actions.