[Cadaad] CfP Migrants Voices in Discourse - Rome 4th Nov 2025

[Franco Zappettini]

‘Migrants’ voices in discourse: bottom-up perspectives on migration’
workshop
Faculty of Political Sciences, Communication and Sociology
La Sapienza University in Rome, 4 th November 2025

Organisers: Samuel Bennett, Sofia Lampropoulou, Franco Zappettini

CDS literature has long scrutinised how migration is discursively
constructed and to
what societal effect. Research foci have extensively ranged from
discrimination and
racialisation to the increasing politicization and mediatization of moral
panic and
resentment towards migrant groups or individuals (van Dijk, Wodak,
Krzyzanowski).
These different strands of scholarship have provided extremely valuable
insights into
the discourses of top-down, institutional actors (e.g. government,
politicians and
mass media) but have focused only to a lesser degree on bottom-up
perspectives
whether by the civil society, advocate organisations (Lampropoulou,
Giaxoglou and
Johnson. 2024), or by people with lived experience of migration
(Krzyzanowski and
Wodak 2010; Bennett 2015). In their close attention to top-down exclusion
and
racism, then, in some respects at least the predominant research streams in
CDS
seem to have inadvertently excluded migrant voices and/ or have opted to
advocate
on their behalf. Moreover, the exclusive attention to dominance and power
within
CDS has resulted in the neglect of voices of resistance resulting in CDS
failing to
engage with the very communities, such as migrant communities it seeks to
advocate for.
As worldwide migratory patterns increase - sustained by economic, social,
and environmental pushes - and migration (management) continues to be a
highly
mobilised topic in public discourses, issues of (political) representation
and (lack of)
migrants’ agency remain key concerns warranting close scrutiny of the
interplay
between discourses and social hierarchies. This one-day workshop aims to
broaden
understanding of migration in discourse with two distinct aims that address
gaps in
previous research:

1) To offer bottom-up perspectives and highlight discursive affordances
for migrant voices and narratives (Hymes, 1996) of their situated

subjectivity to be heard, departing from mainstream top-down
approaches in CDS.
2) To account for exclusion dynamics and power asymmetries between
actors engendered by and reflected in discursive practices on
migration.

Methodologically we privilege affective and ethnographic approaches to
discourse,
welcoming interdisciplinary contributions (including from the civil society
and outside
academia) that take a critical perspective to the issues outlined above.
Rather than focusing on one single geographical context, we try to capture
the
overarching dynamics of different transnational and transcultural realities
of
migration including but not limited to the effect of diasporas on migrants’
political
awareness and the political mobilisation of their social capital, the
racialisation and/
or bordering practices in representations of migration mobility, the
(mediated) lived
experiences of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

The workshop aims to bring together scholars working on the issues outlined
above. We welcome all contributions, including working papers. If you would
like to
join us please send a 300-word abstract by 30 th September by using this
form:
https://forms.gle/d8pdKdk9wZF62MKA9
-- 
Cordiali Saluti, Best Regards

Franco Zappettini PhD (London)
Professore Associato di Lingua Inglese
Facoltà di Scienze Politiche Sociologia e Comunicazione
Università La Sapienza, Roma
Stanza 1, IV piano
Co-editor of the CADAAD Journal
Book review editor at JLP

-- 


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