The panel Storytelling on ‘Migrants’, Storytelling in Migration Research, at the 24th IMISCOE Annual Conference, 6–9 July 2027, Brussels and online, is now accepting submissions.
Researchers are invited to submit proposals on themes in the panel's abstract. Applicants should submit a 250-word paper abstract with a title (as a Word document, including your full name and institute affiliation) to Nilay Kılınç,
Deadline for submissions: 20 September 2026
Please visit the conference website to be informed about IMISCOE and check the Guidelines for Abstract Writing: https://www.imiscoe.org/events/imiscoe-events/2688-24th-imiscoe-annual-conference
Please see the button below to download the longer, more detailed abstract of the panel.
Storytelling on ‘Migrants’, Storytelling in Migration Research
Panel convenor: Nilay Kılınç
Abstract:
Migration is not only experienced, governed, represented and researched; it is also narrated. Stories about migration circulate across diverse cultural, political and media forms, including literature, journalism, film, photography, comedy, podcasts, social media and digital platforms. Simultaneously, storytelling is central to migration research itself, as migrants narrate their experiences to researchers, who in turn select, interpret and transform these accounts into academic narratives. This panel brings these two dimensions into dialogue, examining how migrants and migration are made into stories and how storytelling shapes the production of migration knowledge. Building on the premise that narratives are selective and socially situated rather than neutral representations of reality, the panel explores how migration stories are constructed, circulated, contested and transformed across communicative contexts. It invites critical reflection on who tells migration stories, through which forms, for which audiences, and with what social, political and epistemological consequences. The panel welcomes contributions examining literary, visual, digital and performative forms of storytelling, including work produced by migrants, post-migrants and non-migrant actors. It also foregrounds methodological and ethical questions concerning storytelling within migration research. Papers engaging with participatory, collaborative, creative and arts-based methods such as digital storytelling, participatory filmmaking, photovoice, oral history and creative ethnography are particularly encouraged. While such approaches may redistribute narrative authority and foster participant engagement, the panel also invites critical examination of their limitations, including questions of ownership, interpretation, representation and power.