Panel V: Migrations and Impact on the Individual On October 9th and 10th, 2020, Simon Fraser University’s Department of Humanities and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies, with co-sponsorship from the Institute for Humanities, were pleased to present a two-day online symposium on the theme of migration. The 2015 Migration Crisis highlighted not only the enduring tragedy of mass displacement at the heart of global migratory flows but also the failure of migratory politics to address it. Crises seem to have become the status quo of the current century but perhaps the real crisis is the inability of social discourse to produce concrete analysis beyond a depoliticized humanitarianism and to transform analysis in action. How can the Humanities intervene in such discourse? The study of mass migration is often done in isolation, both in terms of the events themselves and in terms of academic disciplines. Also, the experiences of individuals participating in these events are often neglected due to migration studies being a policy-driven field. This event, a multidisciplinary initiative examining migration in different geographic and historic contexts, will highlight the continuities and breaks that exist within the phenomenon. The symposium will also offer political and cultural insights into how migration has, and continues to, shape our world, and in so doing establish a dialogic space on the issue.
