Join Dr Cangbai Wang at esea contemporary for a talk on his latest publication, 'Negotiating Identities, Language and Migration in Global London: Bridging Borders, Creating Spaces.'
The book, published by Multilingual Matters and edited by Cangbai Wang and Terry Lamb, explores the transnational practices of migrant groups in global London. It reveals the intricate relationships between migrants and the city amidst globalisation. The chapters offer a starting point to examine migrants and the city from a comparative perspective by bringing together case studies of diverse migrant communities. They use 'languaging' as the central concept in the development of an interdisciplinary framework that creates an opportunity to 'talk across disciplines' to engage with key issues crisscrossing migration, cities and language.
By promoting 'language-based' or 'language-sensitive' research, it draws on the plurilingual repertoires and the language and translanguaging practices of migrant communities as the tool for data collection and ethnographic fieldwork. This approach generates fresh insights into the complex issues of diasporic identities, belonging and place-making, which have broad implications for migration studies in post-Brexit Britain and beyond.
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Dr Cangbai Wang is a Reader in Chinese Studies and the founder and Co-Director of HOMELandS (Hub On Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces) at the University of Westminster, a Research Centre that brings together colleagues across the University and beyond to engage with interdisciplinary research into migration and diaspora in the UK and the global context. His research interests fall in the areas of transnational migration, Chinese diaspora and migration-related museum and cultural heritage studies.
Following Dr Wang's presentation, Xiaowen Zhu, Director of esea contemporary, will moderate a Q&A session with the audience.
This event commences esea contemporary's Summer Programme ‘From (Counter-)Archives to Activation.’ Entering the second year of programming following the institute’s transformation, we find it opportune to activate our platform through the lens of archives and counter-archives in collaboration with our extensive network of collaborators and co-workers. Throughout our summer programme, from May to August, 2024, we will actively listen to, engage with, speak out about, write down, touch upon, and look into a diverse array of archival and counter-archival materials. This journey aims to highlight a multiplicity of perspectives while charting a course towards a more outward- and forward-looking framework. As we explore these materials, we remain attuned to the complexities of power dynamics, acknowledging the agency to navigate these exchanges with openness and respect. Through our collaboration with artists, curators, thinkers, scholars, and communities, we seek to foreground pluralistic narratives and empower individuals to shape their own histories.
Cangbai Wang is a Reader in Chinese Studies and the founder and Co-Director of HOMELandS (Hub On Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces) at the University of Westminster, a Research Centre that brings together colleagues across the University and beyond to engage with interdisciplinary research into migration and diaspora in the UK and the global context. His research interests fall in the areas of transnational migration, Chinese diaspora and migration-related museum and cultural heritage studies. He has published widely in peer-reviewed international journals including Asia Pacific Viewpoint, International Journal of Heritage Studies, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, China Information and Modern China. He is the author of Museum Representations of Chinese Diasporas: Migration Histories and the Cultural Heritage of the Homeland(Routledge 2021), and Negotiating Identities, Language and Migration in Global London: Bridging Borders, Creating Spaces(Multilingual Matters, 2024, co-edited with Terry Lamb). He is the co-editor of Routledge Research on Museum and Heritage in Asia, and currently leading an AHRC-funded research project titled Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative.
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