The Carceral Geography Working Group is happy to announce the winner of the 2022 Postgraduate Paper Prize:

Bronte Alexander: “Intimate Geographies of Precarity; water infrastructure in Brazil’s humanitarian response.”

Bronte’s paper examines how Brazil’s WASH stations sit at the intersection of water infrastructure and military-humanitarian modes of migration management. Through a detailed analysis of the spaces and disciplinary practices of shower facilities for migrants, Bronte traces how the regulation of space and time in the shower block enacts Jasbir Puar’s notion of debility, rather than biopolitics, a governmentality that “will not let die,” rather than “making live.” The review panel was impressed with how the paper brought together critical geographical research on water infrastructure and containment in migration and border regimes. Congratulations, Bronte!

Abstract

The recent increase in Venezuelan migrants and refugees to Brazil has prompted a military-humanitarian response coordinated by multiple government agencies and (inter)national organisations. This coordination effort sits under the umbrella of the Operation Welcome task force. Situated in the northern state of Roraima, bordering Venezuela, this article explores one particular site of humanitarian care, a set of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities located in the capital city of Boa Vista. I draw attention to the water infrastructure of the site, which is managed by local government and military personnel. This paper investigates the shower block, a space that serves over one thousand Venezuelan refugees and migrants who are living without shelter. Addressing the spatio-temporal features of this site reveals the practices of debilitating mobilities that aim to provide basic needs under the guise of humanitarian care, while simultaneously governing migrant (embodied) mobilities. I argue that the military-humanitarian approach to Venezuelan migration produces intimate geographies of precarity. The (often subtle) violent consequences of providing aid not only impacts migrant mobilities, but also the bodies and lives of those migrants, which reinforces their vulnerabilities and keeps them in a cyclical loop of exclusion.

We are proud to outline the program for the 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography, which will be held hybrid from Melbourne, Australia on 13-15th December 2022.

Download the program here!

The conference is hosted by the University of Melbourne and supported by the Carceral Geography Working Group (CGWG) of the Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG).

This year’s conference theme is Confinement: spaces and practices of care and control. The conference will be an inclusive, engaged and engaging gathering of interdisciplinary scholars, students, practitioners and people with lived experience of living and working in confined settings.

It will feature 26 themed paper sessions, 5 keynote plenary sessions as well as a creative program of works (online and face-to-face) and a variety of networking opportunities.

Conference registration is free for those without financial support. We invite others to contribute whatever they are able to. Registration contributions will be used to support bursaries for ECR presenters to future International Conferences for Carceral Geography.

Register now at: https://icmsmeetings.eventsair.com/5th-international-conference-for-carceral-geography/registration/Site/Register

For more information, please visit our conference website

Any questions please email:

carceral-geography22@unimelb.edu.au

The latest in the Carceral Geography Working Group book review series is now online. Here, Sophie Lachapelle provides a review of James Gacek’s Portable Prisons: Electronic Monitoring and the Creation of Carceral Territory.

Read Sophie’s review here.

Both James and Sophie’s work will feature at the upcoming 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography in December. For more information and the link to free registration, see the conference webpages.

To suggest a book to be reviewed for the CGWG series, please contact us.

The deadline for abstract submissions for the 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography has been extended to Friday 5 August 2022.

The 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography takes place on 14-15 December 2022.

This year’s conference is hosted by The University of Melbourne, Australia. The conference will be a hybrid online/in-person event, with sessions across multiple time zones and locations.

The conference theme is Confinement: Spaces and Practices of care and control.

Read the call for papers and find out how to submit your abstract.

Dear CGWG members,

Please accept this advanced notice of the CGWG Annual General Meeting, which will take place on 6 September at 13:00 BST. The AGM will take place online via Zoom. Registration is available via Eventbrite here.

We warmly welcome you all to the meeting. As well as the formal business of running the working group, it’s a great opportunity for us to meet and hear from the wide range of researchers who are linked to our network. We are particularly keen to hear feedback on our recent CGWG events and ECR programme.

If you wish to send agenda items for discussion, please email our secretary Lauren Martin (lauren.martin@durham.ac.uk) by Friday 26 August. This is especially encouraged for any members where the time-zone does not allow attendance – we will happily provide feedback on the discussion around your point of interest.

The Carceral Geography Working Group is also looking for new committee members to fill the following positions:

Communications Lead (3 year term)

Responsibilities:

• Lead communications and marketing activity to promote the activities of the CGWG and encourage membership
• Develop and maintain the CGWG website and other digital communications
• Produce communications to support the delivery of CGWG events
• Develop and oversee the use of the CGWG brand identity

Treasurer (3 year term)

Responsibilities:

• Keep the accounts for the group
• Ensure payments are made on behalf of the group
• Compile and submit the group’s annual financial reporting.

Candidates for the Treasurer positions must be a Fellow or Postgraduate Fellow of the RGS-IBG. Financial support for Fellowship is available for eligible candidates via the RGS-IBG. If you are interested in this committee position but would require this support, details of the application are attached.

We also have vacancies for our Advisory Board (3 year term) for those who wish to be involved with the CGWG but who may not wish to take on an executive committee position.

Responsibilities:

• Attend AGM and one-other dedicated Advisory Board meeting per year to offer opinions/suggestions for the development of CGWG activities
• Circulate CGWG events/information via personal and professional networks
• Offer additional support for the committee (as appropriate to experience and availability, as necessary) for tasks such as attending/chairing events; abstract selection; CGWG prize assessment; ECR programme development; support for non-academic engagement.

Nominations for these committee roles and for the Advisory Board are now open. Nominations must be in writing to the Chair (Dr Jennifer Turner – jennifer.turner@uni-oldenburg.de) and Secretary (Dr Lauren Martin – lauren.martin@durham.ac.uk) with the name of two nominators (these need not be Fellows of the RGS-IBG or existing committee members). Nominations can be made until the conclusion of the AGM. If you are unable to attend the meeting (due to time-zone, diary conflicts, etc), please let us know and we will act on your behalf. A vote will be used to make decisions.

If you have any questions about what the roles involve, don’t hesitate to contact Dr Jennifer Turner – jennifer.turner@uni-oldenburg.de.

The call for papers is now live for the 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography, which takes place on 14-15 December 2022.

This year’s conference is hosted by The University of Melbourne, Australia. The conference will be a hybrid online/in-person event, with sessions across multiple time zones and locations.

The conference theme is Confinement: Spaces and Practices of care and control.

Read the call for papers and find out how to submit your abstract.

The latest article in our Carceral Crossings series is online now: Carceral control through a university student lens at homecoming.

In this new article, Emma Dann, an undergraduate student at Queen’s University, Canada, reflects on her experiences of carceral immobilisation during Homecoming at her university. 

Emma describes how celebrations in October 2021 were subject to ‘a police presence more extensive and more intense than the University and its students had experienced before’. Drawing on her academic study of carceral geography, she argues that the policing of the celebrations represents ‘a clear example that techniques and technologies of confinement seep out of ‘carceral’ spaces into the everyday, domestic, street, and institutional spaces’.

Read Emma’s article online here

About Carceral Crossings

Carceral Crossings provides a forum for researchers to explore the interactions between carceral geography and their own research and/or life experiences.

Possible topics for Carceral Crossings articles include:

• Discussion of carceral geography scholarship that has been formative for the author’s own research
• Analysis of manifestations of carcerality in the news or in everyday life
• Reflections on carceral geography research and methods
• Discussion of learning and/or teaching carceral geography

The format is informal, comprising blog-style pieces of up to 750 words, excluding references. We are particularly keen to publish writing by Early Career Researchers (undergraduate, masters, doctoral, and postdoctoral).

To find out more, or to submit your writing, please visit our Carceral Crossings webpage.

The Carceral Geography Working Group is delighted to announce that the 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography will take place on Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 December 2022.

The conference will be hosted by The University of Melbourne, Australia, and will be a hybrid online/in-person event, with sessions across multiple time zones and locations.

The conference theme is Confinement: Spaces and Practices of care and control.

More details and a call for papers will follow very soon…