Hans Lucht, Senior Researcher
Danish Institute for International Studies

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

4:00-5:30p.m.

1030 Jenkins Nanovic Halls
University of Notre Dame

Migrant Underworlds: Travels in Hyporeality

What are the less understood ramifications of migrant fatalities in the Sahara and Mediterranean Sea? Based on fieldwork in Ghana, Niger, and Libya, Dr. Hans Lucht argues that migrant fatalities are symptoms of an emerging form of reality – or hyporeality – in which lives are increasingly short and underwhelming and characterized by incarceration and iconoclasm.

In this presentation, Dr. Lucht will examine the growing restrictions on mobility for young West Africans in a time of change and upheaval. Focusing on high-risk migration from a Ghanaian fishing village via Libya to Southern Europe, Lucht will explore the less understood local ramifications of these deadly journeys.

Speaker:

Dr. Hans Lucht is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, one of Europe’s top-ranked public research institutions. He is the author of Darkness before daybreak: African migrants living on the margins in Southern Italy today (UC Press, 2012) and of several policy-oriented articles on the entanglements of migration, fragile states, inequality, and development issues. His work is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Libya, Italy, Greece, Niger, and Ghana.