The Forms of Migration Research & Arts Collective seeks proposals for creative, scholarly, and interdisciplinary contributions to a new volume on comparative migration studies. Specifically, we are seeking diverse work that engages Arab perspectives on global migration through art and cultural forms of expression in and from Middle Eastern/West Asian, North African, and Arab diasporic communities.

Arab migrants, or migration from and through Arab countries, have been in the focus of much public attention in Europe and North America during the 21st century. However, public discourse on these migration movements is reductive in several ways. It highlights the perspective of Europeans, omitting or ignoring migrant experiences. As a consequence, one-sided narratives of a refugee and subsequent demographic “crisis” dominate media reports – and public perception – of Arab immigrants in the West. Indeed, since the rise of jihadist movements in the early 2000s, Arab migrants in countries of the Global North have been stereotyped as a security threat and, more recently, against the background of the war on Palestine, as anti-semites. The results of these reductive views are manifold, ranging from a rise of rightwing populist parties thriving on anti- immigrant sentiments, to racial profiling, and a criminalization of migration through new laws and regulations that leave no room for legal immigration.

Forms of Migration vol. 2: Arab Perspectives on Im/migrant Art and Literature seeks to challenge these Eurocentric, or Western-centric, views by highlighting a diversity of Arab perspectives. These may include migration movements from one Arab country to another, Arab migrant experiences from the US, Europe, East Asia, Africa, or other parts of the world, and non-Arab migrants in Arab contexts, past and present. We welcome scholarly essays, creative writing, nonfiction, visual art, as well as interdisciplinary work that blends or challenges the boundaries of genre. Topics of interest include all forms of aesthetic expression, i.e., im/migrant literature, visual/media/performance art, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and design. We have a particular interest in work that engages explicitly with form and the connections between formal choices and political expression.

To be considered, please submit an abstract of 300–400 words, or a selection of up to 6 images, along with a bio (150–200 words) and contact information (for all contributors, in case of more than one author), in a single PDF file, by January 12, 2024. We will invite submissions of complete manuscripts/artistic works based on the quality of the abstracts, in mid-January.Complete manuscripts should be a maximum of 8,000 words (shorter submissions are welcome!), while submissions of art, photography, or other visual materials should be a maximum of 15 pages. Submission deadline of the complete manuscripts will be April 15, 2024.

Our volume will target a global audience, therefore, we envision English as the primary language. However, we are well aware of the various reasons to challenge the global dominance of English, especially in the context of the topic of this volume. Whether you prefer to combine English and Arabic, submit an Arabic or bilingual piece, or include another language relevant to your work, we will support your decision. We may have limited funding for translations from Arabic to English, too. Just let us know about your ideas and preferences in your abstract, so we can figure out how to include them. We intend to publish this volume through Falschrum Books in the winter of 2024/25.

Falschrum Books is a not-for-profit publisher, founded in 2019 in Berlin. Operating at the intersection of art, literature and research, its goal is to foster collaborations between artists and authors of different social backgrounds, across national and linguistic boundaries.

About us: The Forms of Migration Research & Arts Collective, initiated by Dr. Stefan Maneval and Dr. Jennifer A. Reimer in 2020, explores how art and literature shape our understanding of global migration. As scholars, poets, and practicing artists, we are particularly dedicated to questions of im/migrant and transnational aesthetics. We emphasize forms of expression, arguing that it is often the compositional structure and rhetoric of texts and images, the literary nature and formal qualities of certain images and stories that impact readers and beholders, opening up new interpretations of reality. Fundamentally, our work seeks to raise awareness around the diversity of migrant experiences around the globe. Our first volume, released in 2022, Forms of Migration: Global Perspectives on Im/migrant Art & Literature, is a rich collection of essays, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, and visual material. It comprises analyses of literature, diasporic fashion, cinema, music, and mixed media installations, as well as photographic work, collages, drawings, and performances turned into writing. The volume shows how innovative storytelling and artistic material offer a chance to apprehend migration differently, to grasp the complexity of migration processes and to challenge common perceptions of im/migrant experiences. Learn more at: https://www.falschrum.org/forms- of-migration-global-perspectives-on-im...

Mohamed Abdelkarim is an artist, writer, filmmaker, and a Ph.D. candidate at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. He received his MA, Master of Arts in Fine Arts, Major in MAPS - Arts in Public Sphères, from EDHEA - Ecole de design et hauteécole d'art and was honored with the Prix Excellence HES-SO. Abdelkarim's artistic an research practice reflect on performance as a research method and a practice through which he produces images and texts in forms of scripts, narratives, lyrics, and prose. His area of research engages various subjects found within the notion of “locomotion.” His current umbrella project focuses on the agency of the landscape as a witness to "a history we missed and a future we have not yet attended." His works have been included in the Sharjah Biennial 11, 2013, Guild Master of Cabaret Voltaire, Manifesta 11, 2016, Live Works Performance Act Award Vol. 5, IT, 2017, and Berlinale 72/Forum Expanded, 2022, and he has been shortlisted for the Henrike Grohs Art Award 2022.

Stefan Maneval teaches Islamic Studies, as well as Migration and Diversity Studies at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Holding a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin, he has received grants and scholarships from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Orient-Institut Beirut, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). He is the author of New Islamic Urbanism: The Architecture of Public and Private Space in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (UCL Press, 2019), the editor of Faith Travels by Streetcar: Norms and Objects in Religious and Secular Contexts (Falschrum, 2021) and co-editor of Muslim Matter: Photographs, Objects, Essays (with Omar Kasmani, Revolver Publishing, 2016). He is a winner of the dissertation award from the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO), and a member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). His research areas include: material culture, gender studies, collective identities, and the public sphere in Muslim contexts, as well as discourse on Islam in Europe.

Jennifer A. Reimer, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Program Coordinator for the Low Residency MFA Program at Oregon State University – Cascades, received her PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011, and her MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco in 2005. She is the 2011 winner of the American Studies Association’s Gloria E. Anzaldúa Award. Jennifer’s scholarly work on comparative im/migrant aesthetics, transnational feminism, and contemporary poetry and poetics by U.S. poets of color has appeared widely in scholarly journals. She is the author of two books of poetry: The Rainy Season Diaries (Quale Press, 2013) and Keşke (Airlie Press, 2022). The Turkish translation of The Rainy Season Diaries was released in 2017 by Şiirden Press (Istanbul). She is the Forward Editor for the Journal of Transnational American Studies, and serves on the Editorial Board of Airlie Press.