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Debordering is both refusal and reclamation. It refuses the boundaries and borders imposed on bodies, minds, and spirits. It embraces and nourishes all our porous multiplicities, our interconnected and implicated worlds. To deborder is to demand more than the categories and capacities we are reduced to.
Momtaza Mehri, Somali-British poet and essayist |
When I was invited to attend the Debordering Futures conference at the University of Cambridge on behalf of the other side of hope, I was sceptical. How could an academic event produce an output that would align with our magazine’s ethos? After all, our mission is to offer a platform and a safe space for marginalised voices – immigrants, refugees, and people in motion, who are often burdened by difference and consumed by a burning desire to belong somewhere, anywhere.
Yet, my doubts quickly dissolved once I attended. The Debordering Futures conference was not your typical academic gathering, where scholars speak from their ivory towers, detached from the realities they study. Instead, it was a breath of fresh air, an event that brought together migrant organisers and activists, immigrant scholars, poets, and artists who share the same yearning as our contributors – the desire to have their voices heard in spaces that often cater only to certain ways of being and knowing.
Like the voices we amplify in the other side of hope, these academics were searching for a place where creativity and difference are not just accepted but celebrated. They believed in new ways to produce knowledge, ways that honour the individuality and unique lived experiences of marginalised people. This event was for those living in the in-between, striving to bridge the gap between rigid academic conventions and the creative endeavours that truly reflect someone’s lived experience, history, and immigrant identity.
As both an academic and a poet, I realised that the attendees and presenters at this conference were there to embrace their own and others’ differences. They were building together a space within academia where varied experiences are not just acknowledged but are valued and celebrated. They were challenging the notion that the only legitimate way to know and express ideas is through academic texts written in rigid, formal English. They came together to demonstrate that poetry is as legitimate an academic tool as any, as are art and visual representations.
In the pages that follow, you will find a summary of the conference talks and workshops, followed by poems contributed by both speakers and attendees of the conference. These pages may appear academic on the surface, but I assure you they are much more than that. They represent a commitment to embracing difference, to pursuing justice, and to breaking down the borders within academia that segregate those who dare to express themselves differently. Academia often feels like a landscape of boundaries, much like immigration itself, where people are constantly navigating the constraints of belonging. For immigrant academics in the UK, this sense of not fitting in is doubly challenging.
This collaboration between the other side of hope and the University of Cambridge is a first of its kind, and we are excited to share it with you. It is a testament to what can be achieved when we step beyond the familiar and create spaces where everyone’s voice, no matter how different, has a place. We invite you to turn these pages with an open heart and mind, and to join us in this journey of debordering – of breaking down barriers, everywhere.
Like the voices we amplify in the other side of hope, these academics were searching for a place where creativity and difference are not just accepted but celebrated. They believed in new ways to produce knowledge, ways that honour the individuality and unique lived experiences of marginalised people. This event was for those living in the in-between, striving to bridge the gap between rigid academic conventions and the creative endeavours that truly reflect someone’s lived experience, history, and immigrant identity.
As both an academic and a poet, I realised that the attendees and presenters at this conference were there to embrace their own and others’ differences. They were building together a space within academia where varied experiences are not just acknowledged but are valued and celebrated. They were challenging the notion that the only legitimate way to know and express ideas is through academic texts written in rigid, formal English. They came together to demonstrate that poetry is as legitimate an academic tool as any, as are art and visual representations.
In the pages that follow, you will find a summary of the conference talks and workshops, followed by poems contributed by both speakers and attendees of the conference. These pages may appear academic on the surface, but I assure you they are much more than that. They represent a commitment to embracing difference, to pursuing justice, and to breaking down the borders within academia that segregate those who dare to express themselves differently. Academia often feels like a landscape of boundaries, much like immigration itself, where people are constantly navigating the constraints of belonging. For immigrant academics in the UK, this sense of not fitting in is doubly challenging.
This collaboration between the other side of hope and the University of Cambridge is a first of its kind, and we are excited to share it with you. It is a testament to what can be achieved when we step beyond the familiar and create spaces where everyone’s voice, no matter how different, has a place. We invite you to turn these pages with an open heart and mind, and to join us in this journey of debordering – of breaking down barriers, everywhere.
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