Abstract:

Wrong passport stories are stories about what one calls ‘wrong’ passports, passports that

are ‘wronged’ by virtue of historical injustices and global inequality inflicted on a majority of

the globe by a minority. This minority now holds the ability to freely move, act, and exist

while withholding such freedoms from others. Arguably, one’s identity is at least partly

constituted by one’s passport. The passport determines the domain of linguistic, cultural,

socio-economic possibilities, with which one begins to establish oneself in the world. One’s

passport is ‘wrong’ if one’s domain of possibilities is unjustly restricted due to primarily

political reasons. It can be said that having a ‘wrong’ passport also means being limited

within one’s country of origin be it in terms of access to equal opportunities, or one’s rights.

Notably, however, the notion of the ‘wrong’ passport comes from outside the territorial

borders it is native to. In European academia, the matter of ‘wrong’ passports is often

brushed under the rug when organising events, conferences, publishing, or in hiring

practices where people with wrong passports simply do not make it to the conversation. In

addition, the wrongness of these passports is tied to the ‘wrongness’ ascribed to the

identities of such migrants who must comply, assimilate or suffer the consequences of being

‘wrong’. Hence, the challenges associated with being wronged for their passports are

notoriously familiar to migrant researchers who leave their countries in search for career

opportunities, education, or even a new home.

With the help of our speakers, we try to creatively curate some of these stories in a

workshop format. In this workshop, we bring together the ‘wrong’ passport stories in an

attempt to lend them visibility, know and understand them better, and think together on

how to change these inequalities.

This abstract works also as a call to artistically inclined researchers (independent, affiliated

or ex) who would like to work with a small group of people to creatively bring their stories

together. Each speaker will be given approximately 45 minutes and a space to create and add

to a collective installation. We are working on ensuring compensation for the speakers.

Event Details:

Date for sending in abstracts: 9th November 2023

Selection by: 10th November 2023

Date of Event: 22nd November 2023

What you need to send us:

Please send a very short abstract (200 words) on what you intend to do and a very short

bio (100 words) to mariia.fedorova@univie.ac.at by November 6th, 2023.

This event is about ‘wrong’ passports and experiences of harm and exclusion due to global

inequalities. Hence, in our selection process, we are primarily looking for migrants who are

queer people, people of the global majority, younger researchers/ artists, and people with

socio-economic struggles.

A diversity of subject matter and art forms is also preferred.