The formation of the United Nations in 1945 was intended to forestall global wars and inaugurate global peace. Despite its efforts and those of other international and regional organizations, wars have persisted in the 21st century. For instance, in Africa, countries are engulfed in the vortex of armed conflicts from the struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to the farmers-herders conflict in Nigeria and the Somali government/Al-Shabab Islamist militant group conflict. This violence is echoed in the post-election tensions between the military and insurgents (Allied Democratic Forces) in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, just like the post-Tigray War conflicts in Ethiopia. These pockets of violent instability have resulted in thousands of casualties and displacements. African refugees, seeking safety in more stable regions, add to the staggering population of global refugees produced by the Syrian conflict, the Ukraine-Russian War, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Israel-Hezbollah crisis, and so on. These conflict-induced refugees and environmental crisis refugees, in addition to other similarly construed migrants whom Robert Young has described as the "new subalterns," mount unprecedented pressure on the environment and economy of their host countries.

The experience of refugeehood predates the concept that has emerged to describe it. Refugeehood has affected all countries of the world either as the source, transit, or destination countries for displaced people (Martin 2016). Hence, refugee experiences have been studied from different perspectives. One approach shows how some state policies in the Global North, to discourage refugees, infringe on the rights of the refugee hosts' citizens (Ormsby 2017). Another perspective examines how different types of solidarities are expressed towards refugees (Martin 2016). Freedman (2016) interrogates sexual and gender-based violence against refugee women and the inadequacy of the current approach to address this emerging crisis (Loescher & Loescher 1994). Others consider how to address the potential security threat posed by refugees without violating their rights (Mogire 2009) and the traumatizing image of the refugee in the media (Pupavac 2008, Tyyska et al. 2018). However, one area that has attracted less scholarly attention is the ethical dilemma facing host countries at individual and state levels. Hosts attempt to balance altruism and the humanitarian obligation ("non-refoulement") to refugees with the safety of citizens and domestic stability. Issues of housing shortage, unemployment, cost of living, and insecurity in countries such as Canada and the US have been associated with refugee influx. This conference therefore provides a platform to reimagine and expand the scope of refugeehood study, incorporating people of the Global North who are displaced by various ecological crises - the recent Florida hurricane being a case in point.

Literary writers, dramatists, filmmakers, and media reporters in refugee source countries, transition points, and destination countries have articulated the complexity of this situation within their cultural spheres, forcing us to contemplate the refugeehood phenomenon, especially within Canada, the USA, and the rest of the Global North that often host refugees. Tension in its artistic representation has informed the genesis of the 2025 Free Exchange Conference. The conference seeks to explore how individual lives, economies, and public policies have been shaped following the influx of refugees to the Global North.

We are interested in proposals that explore how ethical conflicts are framed and imagined in Indigenous, postcolonial literatures, literatures in Canada, films, and cultural texts given that the global refugee crisis is evolving and breaking disciplinary boundaries. We also invite proposals that investigate how the representation of global conflicts and environmental crises, with their concomitant refugee problems, have shaped discourses about refugeehood and the larger unintended consequence of this for the citizens of host countries.

Finally, we welcome proposals that interrogate the representation of host countries endeavoring to balance humanitarian obligations with the safety and well-being of their citizens in films and cultural studies. The conference will ask participants to reflect on ethical considerations that may conflict with the refugee and border control policies of the governments of the host countries and how refugees regard the hospitality and/or hostility of host countries.

We acknowledge that traditional academic methodologies can perpetuate colonial logic (Loveless 2019); therefore, we encourage authors to also consider a research-creation approach if suitable to their topic. Creative works, research-creation projects, and papers that bend and challenge the presuppositions of what is deemed sufficiently “academic” are encouraged. Engage with the theme in whatever sense that feels appropriate to you, paying attention, but not limited, to the following subthemes:
1. Representation of refugeehood and its slow violence in Indigenous literature, postcolonial literature, and literatures in Canada
2. Images of the refugee in digital media
3. Framing of refugees in migrants' films
4. Historicizing refugeehood in global armed conflict situations
5. Dramatizing and performing refugeehood in plays and theaters
6. Conflict-induced refugees and environmental crises refugees (hurricane, flood, wildfire, tsunami, earthquake)
7. Gender and sexual exploitation of refugees and new subalterns
8. Balancing humanitarian obligation with citizen protection
9. Hospitality and hostility in refugee and migrant experience
10. Relationship between housing scarcity, unemployment, cost of living, insecurity/crimes, and Refugee Crisis
11. Intersection of refugeehood, religion, and queer identity

Please submit a 200 to 300-word abstract and up to 100-word biographical note to this email: onyeka.odoh@ucalgary.ca by February 10, 2025.