According to estimates by the United Nations, over 120 million individuals are currently forcibly displaced worldwide. Warfare, regional disputes, state-sponsored violence, environmental disasters, famines, and various forms of physical or mental abuse have disrupted their lives, leading to tremendous loss and trauma. Whether forced migrants find themselves "internally displaced" within their countries of origin, at international borders, in transit zones, or in so-called "receiving" countries, they share the experience of enduring a life in liminal spaces where fundamental political, social, legal, and ethical norms and claims are suspended and denied.

At the same time, right-wing populist movements exploit debates on migration to promote the stigmatization, criminalization, and exclusion of those who seek refuge and asylum. In privileging the perspective of receiving states and their citizens, such debates often misrepresent the complex realities and experiences of displaced people, distorting or silencing their own narratives. Revealing a profound humanitarian, political, and moral crisis, the phenomenon of forced migration thus calls for a re-evaluation of questions of power, representation, and agency—a re-evaluation for which it is imperative that the voices of forcibly displaced individuals and groups are heard: What does it mean to live "out of place"? How does forced migration challenge dominant ideologies of place as a "natural" home, of identity and belonging? And what are its implications for rethinking existing politico-juridical regimes?

In this seminar, we will address these and other related questions at the intersection of literature and political theory, particularly from a comparative perspective. By bringing various accounts and narratives of forced displacement, refugeehood, and exile in historical, modern, and contemporary literatures from around the globe (from Homer and Dante to Stefan Zweig, Anna Seghers, Tayeb Salih, and Edwidge Danticat or, more recently, Jhumpa Lahiri, Laila Lalami, Dinaw Mengistu, and Assimwe Deborah Kawe) into dialogue with key positions in 20th and 21st century political theory of migration (as developed by, e.g., Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Donatella Di Cesare, Etienne Balibar, Serena Parekh, Achille Mbembe, or Thomas Nail), we will discuss specific experiences and circumstances that shape the existence of those who must live out of place.

We invite participants from all levels of their careers and from all academic (as well as non-academic) backgrounds to examine narrations of migration, displacement, and exile and to critically engage with concepts of place, identity, and political agency.

Paper proposals of 250-300 words must be submitted via the portal on the ACLA website (https://www.acla.org/annual-meeting) between August 26 and October 2, 2025. If you have questions about potential contributions to this seminar, please contact us at [email protected] and/or [email protected].