Detailed Program

This website will be updated regularly to provide you with the latest information. For a quick overview, you will find the conference flyer in pdf format here.

Last update: 23.04.2026

 

Wed, May 6, 2026

 

Pre-conference event (admission required)

Masterclass for PhD students in migration law, politics, and ethics

with Hiroshi Motomura (UCLA, Los Angeles)

Time: 14:00–18:00

Location: Dekanatssitzungssaal, Licher Str. 72, 35394 Giessen, First floor

Chairs: Jürgen Bast (University of Giessen) & Frederik von Harbou (University of Applied Sciences Jena)

 

Thu, May 7, 2026

 

Session A

Parallel Panels

Time: 14:00–16:00

 

Panel A1: Fora of Legal Struggles

Location: Campus Law and Economics, Licher Str. 64, 35394 Giessen

Panelists:

• Luise Freitag, University of Göttingen: “Change of Arenas? Negotiating Migrants’ Rights Before UN Bodies”
• Kamilla Galicz, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa: “The Dublin System Before UN Committees: From Exceptionalization to Humanrightization?”
• Anna Suerhoff, German Institute for Human Rights: “Suspension of Family Reunification for Beneficiaries of Subsidiary Protection”

Chair: Janna Wessels, VU Amsterdam

 

Panel A2: Varieties of Discourses

Location: Campus Law and Economics, Licher Str. 64, 35394 Giessen

Panelists:

• Laura Cleton, Erasmus University Rotterdam: “Legitimizing Children’s Deportation through Human Rights Discourse?”
• Marlene Joger, University of Bamberg: “Diverging Human Rights Perspectives? An Analysis of Human Rights Narratives in Migration Discourse in the European Parliament”
• Virginia Signorini, University of Milan: “Is the Right to Asylum Dying? Stratified Protection, Institutional Myopia, and Ambivalences in Italy’s Refugee Regime”

Chair: Maik Paap, University of Giessen

 

Panel A3: Agency and Representations

Location: Campus Law and Economics, Licher Str. 64, 35394 Giessen

Panelists:

• Simona Adinolfi, University of Giessen/MeDiMi: “The AI and the Butterfly: A Critical Posthumanist Approach to Images of Migration”
• Janina Schlüsselburg, University of New South Wales/MeDiMi: “The White Gaze and its Resistance: Manus Island Prison and its Representation in Australian Mainstream News Media”
• Muhammed Zeyn, University of Oxford: “Contesting Protection: Syrian Refugees’ Digital Resistance and the Reclamation of Agency”

Chair: Friederike Eichner, University of Giessen

 

Session B

Format: Opening Keynote

Humanrightization – A Practice Theory of Human Rights in Migration Societies

Time: 17:00–18:00

Location: Aula, JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Speakers: Jürgen Bast, Laura Holderied and Dariuš Zifonun, Universities of Giessen and Marburg

Chair: Susanne Buckley-Zistel, University of Marburg

 

Session C

Format: Plenary Event

Forms of Humanrightization

Time: 18:00–20:00

Location: Aula, JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Susanne Buckley-Zistel, University of Marburg: “Human Rights Practices in the Syrian Diaspora”

Janna Wessels, VU Amsterdam: “Doctrinal Entrepreneurship in Human Rights Litigation”

Michael Knipper, University of Giessen: “Doing Human Rights in Migrant Health”

Commented by Tine Destrooper, Ghent University

Chair: Frederik von Harbou, University of Applied Sciences Jena

 

– From 20:15 Dinner in a restaurant (limited places) –

 

 Fri, May 8, 2026

 

Session D

Format: Plenary Event

Conditions of Humanrightization

Time: 09:00–10:30

Location: Aula, JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Jürgen Bast, University of Giessen: “Human Rights Law”

Adriana Kessler, University of Applied Sciences Jena: “Human Rights Movements”

Greta Olson, University of Giessen: “Human Rights Consciousness”

Commented by Anuscheh Farahat, University of Vienna

Chair: Anna Arden, University of Giessen

 

– 10:30–11:00 Coffee break –

 

Session E

Format: Plenary Event

Consequences of Humanrightization

Time: 11:00–12:30

Location: Aula, JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Laura Holderied, University of Giessen: “Rights and Dynamics of Inclusion/Exclusion in Migration Societies”

Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, University of Frankfurt: “Struggling with Human Rights in Migrant Protest”

Benjamin Bunk, University of Giessen: “Notions of Justice in the Professional Everyday”

Commented by Vicki Squire, University of Warwick

Chair: Mina Ibrahim, University of Marburg

 

– 12:30–14:00 Lunch break at the venue –

 

Session F

Parallel Panels

Time: 14:00–15:30

Panel F1: Belonging Claims

Location: JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Panelists:

• Kathrin Hamenstädt, University of Birmingham: “The Problematic Nexus Between Migrants’ Rights and Migrants’ ‘Value’: A Critical Discussion of the UK’s Earned Settlement Scheme”
• Tatiana Margalitadze, University of Tuscia, Viterbo: “Who Speaks for ‘The People’? Migration, Constitutional Identity, and Demographic Governance”
• Barbara von Rütte, University of Bern: “Rights’ Reversal: Integration Requirements and Human Rights in Swiss Migration Law”

Chair: Laura Goller, University of Giessen

 

Panel F2: Activist Practices

Location: JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Panelists:

• Pascale El Moussobaa, University of Giessen/GCSC: “Embodying Protest, Building Agency: Exploring Middle Eastern Migrants’ Political Lives and Subjectivities in Berlin City”
• Lena Laube & Maria Ullrich, University of Bonn: “Making Human Rights Visible at Sea: On the Intervention of Civil SAR in the Mediterranean Border Regime”

Chair: Slađana Branković, University of Frankfurt

 

Panel F3: Actors and Experiences

Location: JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Panelists:

• Daniel Mekonnen, independent researcher, Geneva: “From ‘Liberal Bastions’ to Norm Breakers: The ‘Human Rights Backlash’ in the Global North and its Implication on the Future of International Refugee Law”
• Aleksandra Ancite-Jepifánova, Refugee Law Initiative, University of London: “Temporalising Genocide: From Protection to Deportation in the Case of Iraqi Yazidis in Germany”
• Delzar Sadiq, University of Erbil: “From Political Activism to Human Rights Advocacy: A Historical Analysis of the Kurdish Diaspora’s Role in ‘Humanrightizing’ the Kurdish Question (1979–Present)”

Chair: Leon Züllig, University of Giessen

 

Panel F4: Everyday Practices

Location: JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Panelists:

• Stefano Angeleri, University of Limerick: “Seeds of Praxis: Human Rights Education with Community Health Leaders in Marginalized Migrant and Host Communities”
• Steffi Colao, University of Hamburg: “Anticipating the Risks of CEAS: Looking to the U.S. from Germany”
• Tasnim Jabaly & Sebastian Weste, University of Marburg/MeDiMi: “Vernacularization of Human Rights in Public Places”

Chair: Maria Hartmann, University of Marburg

 

– 15:30–16:00 Coffee break –

 

Session G

Format: Roundtable

The State of Migrants’ Human Rights in Europe and the U.S.

Time: 16:00–17:30

Location: Aula, JLU main building, Ludwigstr. 23, 35390 Giessen

Speakers:

• Anuscheh Farahat, University of Vienna
• Hiroshi Motomura, UCLA, Los Angeles
• Vicki Squire, University of Warwick

Chair: Jürgen Bast, University of Giessen