Not least since the onset to the so-called refugee crisis, immigration and the politics of belonging have risen to renewed centrality in Europe. The French “Burkini” debate and the fence between Hungary and Croatia, but also older preoccupations such as the emergence of urban ‘parallel societies’ and discussions about "Leitkul-tur" ("Guiding Culture") mirror European anxieties about immigration.

By investigating different areas of inclusion and exclusion—the legal apparatus and policing, educational, and professional spaces, private and domestic spheres of life, etc.—this conference seeks to engage a variety of perspectives on the differential incorpora-tion of immigrants and colonial subjects in Europe since the mid-twentieth century.

At the second annual IES/SSM Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, doctoral students from a wide range of disciplines will put their research into conversation around this unifying theme. This event is presented in conjunction with the Matrix Research Team focused on "Questioning the Evidence on the Integration of Immigrants in Europe".

Presenters include:

• Fatima El-Tayeb, Professor of Literature and Ethnic Studies and director of Critical Gender Studies at the University of California, San Diego
• Salman Sayyid, Professor of Social Theory and Decolonial Thought in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds, UK
• Discussant: Stephen Small, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley