Remembering Spaces of Internment (ReSI) invites broad and interdisciplinary reflections on spaces of internment and the erasures to which they are often subjected. Internment, as ReSI envisions it, is a phenomenon distinct from imprisonment—it concerns the deprivation of liberties due to administrative or military decisions, rather than judicial ones. Internment, as such, is a contemporary phenomenon, present throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and across all inhabited continents. While internment is often construed as an exception, its presence is structural and it thus constitutes a permanent challenge to the principles of the rule of law. Internment often leads to the creation of camps. At the same time, its practice cannot be reduced to camps alone: a multiplicity of other spaces are used to intern, just as camps are used for a range of other forms of deprivation of liberty. Perhaps because of this diversity, sites of internment have rarely constituted the object of transversal studies that account for the extent of the phenomenon. ReSI aims to establish a research network to reflect collectively on the subject.

 

Building on the first two international workshops it organized in Nanterre, France (9-10 March, 2023) and in Tucson, Arizona (6-8 March, 2024), ReSI’s third symposium aims to further this reflection on sites of internment and continue to build its research network. We therefore welcome proposals that address internment or its memory regardless of the geographic focus or disciplinary approach: scholars working from social scientific, humanities, architectural, or artistic perspectives are all encouraged to submit a proposal. We are particularly interested in contributions that address the following two themes

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- The shifting scales and typologies of spaces of internment, whether territorial, institutional, temporal, or memorial…

- The cartography of spaces of internment, including both its aesthetic and visual dimensions as well as its scientific and technical aspects. Critical cartography approaches or alternatives are particularly appreciated.

 

Proposals for contributions (in English, French, or Spanish; one page maximum) should be emailed to Lucile.Chaput@ac-rennes.fr before December 1st, 2024. For any other questions, please write to resiresearchorg@gmail.com. The symposium will take place in Rivesaltes on June 18, 19, and 20, 2025. This event, like the previous ReSI symposiums in 2023 and 2024, is funded by the Transatlantic Research Partnership, a program of the FACE Foundation and the Embassy of France in the United States, with the participation of the University of Arizona and local partners.

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Program Committee:

Aurélie Audeval (U. Lille-IRHiS-ICMigrations), Lucile Chaput (U. du Québec à Trois-Rivières/U.Rennes2-TEMPORA), Nicolas Fischer (CNRSCESDIP), Terrence Peterson (Florida International U.), Mathilde Pette (U. Perpignan-ART Dev-ICMigrations), Laurence Prempain (LARHRA), Adèle Sutre (ICMigrations), Grégory Tuban (Mémorial de Rivesaltes-UPVD/FRAMESPA), Beth Weinstein (U. of Arizona).