Wyse Postdoctoral Prize Awarded
Dr Irene Peano has won the first Wyse Postdoctoral Prize for her research proposal ‘Beyond Cynicism and Bare Life’. The prize is given to the most promising postdoctoral research proposal falling within the remit of the Department’s three research tracks of Intimate Aspirations, Resources and Sociality.
‘Beyond Cynicism and Bare Life: Somatic and Intimate Resources Against Migrants’.
Dr Irene Peano
My proposed research addresses themes of current social relevance, such as migration and its governance, and their relation to emerging forms of engaged citizenship and alternative sovereignties. At the same time, it relates to all three research tracks currently explored within the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and forges links between them. I shall investigate ethnographically modes of protest and solidarity that seek to contrast states’ regulation of migrant movement (with a special focus on detention and deportation), and labour regimes based on the disposability of migrant bodies in contemporary Europe. Forms of resistance and flight are widespread across different EU countries, and take the form of attempted escapes from detention centres, hunger strikes, dirty protests, the sowing of one’s lips, and episodes of self-harming, as well as labour strikes and dramatic acts that capture media attention, such as the occupation of rooftops and the climbing of cranes. Anti-racist solidarity networks are also active in supporting undocumented migrants, through demonstrations, boycotts, and the provision of alternative media coverage on the issue. Whilst I take Italy as my main research location, contacts with other researchers and a comparative perspective will be established across Europe (and especially in France, the UK and Greece).