Muhlenberg to host lecture that explores the effects and cultural representations of "illegal" immigration between North Africa and Europe
The talk will be presented by Taïeb Berrada, assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies in the department of modern languages and literatures at Lehigh University. The event is sponsored by Muhlenberg's department of languages, literatures and cultures.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017 04:57 PM
Berrada's talk, "Displaced Borders, Disposable Bodies: Theorizing the 'Harraga,'" will be held Monday, March 20 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in Seegers Union 113 and is free and open to the public.
The phenomenon of Harraga, illegal immigrants burning their documents and crossing borders between North Africa and Europe, has been the topic of a considerable number of literary, cinematic and sociological works. Berrada's lecture will examine the ways in which these works have helped reconsider, reshape and redefine the notion of borders within which individuals as well as their bodies are confined to a space of “discipline and punishment” before becoming disposable commodities.
He is the author of "La figure de l'intrus: Représentations Postcoloniales Maghrébines [The Figure of the Intruder: Postcolonial Maghrebi Representations]". His research interests are in Francophone North African literatures, cultures and film, and critical and postcolonial theory.
