In Australia, a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is set to be held during this parliamentary term. This moment follows the recent Love/Thoms High Court decision which raises legal questions of constitutional belonging. In this context, questions of citizenship are currently at the forefront of Australia’s national consciousness.
This Symposium invites interdisciplinary imaginings of citizenship’s stakes in Australia and the broader Asia-Pacific region, but potentially more widely. Citizenship is an abstract concept with a concrete history and a capacity to affect individual, national, regional and global imaginings of belonging. The legal status of citizenship operates at the intersection of law, culture, and politics, and is marked by a tension between individualism and membership of a political community.
This Symposium is generously supported by ANU College of Law, the ANU Gender Institute and the ANU Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities.
PROGRAM
Download program and abstracts.
| 8.45-9am | Registration |
| 9-9.10am | Welcome and Acknowledgment of Country |
| 9.10-10.15am | Panel 1: Citizenship on Indigenous land: belonging, place and sovereignty Speaker 1: Asmi Wood, “Arrogating the power to decide over Aboriginal people’s place on this continent: the Executive’s position in Love v Thoms” Speaker 2: Elisa Arcioni (online), “Territoriality at the heart of membership: insights into community” |
| 10.15-10.30am | Break: morning tea |
| 10.30-11.45am | Panel 2: Imperialism, citizenship and crisis Speaker 1: Adil Hasan Khan (online), “An imperial genealogy of the practices of minority management and protection: the making of a citizenship crisis in South Asia” Speaker 2: Christoph Sperfeldt, “Citizenship and statelessness: reflections from Cambodia” Speaker 3: South Asian Research and Advocacy Hub (SARAH), “Identity in the Australian Colonial-State and the ‘ongoing struggle for [Australian] Indians’ souls’” |
| 11.45am-1pm | Panel 3: Constructing the good citizen Speaker 1: Gianmaria Lenti (online), “Burden or benefit? How Australian Federal Policy stigmatises aspiring residents living with HIV” Speaker 2: Anne Macduff, “Constructing the ideal citizen: good character, citizenship values and the Australian national identity” Speaker 3: Melany Toombs, “The National Subject: the acquisition and removal of citizenship from a gendered perspective” |
| 1-1.30pm | Lunch |
| 1.30-2.50pm | Panel 4: Citizenship: exclusions and agency Speaker 1: Kate Ogg and Olivera Simic, “Broken bonds: Australia’s COVID-19 border policies and transformations of conceptualisations of citizenship” Speaker 2: Jaskiran Kaur Rekhraj, “Citizenship and statelessness: the issue of belonging and place in the world” Speaker 3: Makiko Nishitani, “‘Innocent illegal’ migrants: exploring ‘citizenship’ and belonging through the migration of Pacific children to Australia” Speaker 4: Kim Rubenstein, “Overcoming the ‘migration integrity’ paradigm — moving from citizenship as exclusion to citizenship as nation-building” |
| 2.50-3.05pm | Break: afternoon tea |
| 3.05-3.50pm | Panel 5: Emotions of Citizenship Speaker 1: Amy Hamilton, “Metaphors of citizenship: tethered/severed bonds and ties in Love and Benang” Speaker 2: Jordana Silverstein, "The emotions of statelessness and citizenship" |
| 3.50-5pm | Panel 6: Citizenship’s past |