CMS Borders Research Group is thrilled to host Omid Tofighian and Elahe Zivardar for a talk titled “Creative Resistance Against Australian Border Violence: The Politics of Shared Philosophical Activity“. This talk is co-sponsored by Green College and Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies
RSVP for this talk below.
Abstract
This talk introduces the idea of a shared philosophical activity in the context of Australian border violence with a focus on the Nauru offshore refugee prison. Omid Tofighian and Elahe Zivardar will discuss their critiques of border violence through examples of their collective and creative resistance against Australia’s offshore detention regime, which has imprisoned people seeking asylum in remote Pacific islands since 2001. Our speakers will also reflect on the kind of knowledge produced in carceral spaces, which foregrounds the work of incarcerated refugees or those recently released. In doing so, they will reflect on how collaborations with refugees can produce new forms of epistemic activism; new possibilities for engaging with border violence in intellectually transformative ways; and different forms of creative resistance. Finally, Omid Tofighian and Elahe Zivardar will address significant issues regarding knowledge production in extreme situations such as indefinite detention and focus on their ongoing collaboration on the upcoming film Architect.
Bio(s)
Omid Tofighian is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement and discrimination. He is adjunct lecturer at University of New South Wales and honorary research fellow at Birkbeck Law, University of London. His publications include Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues (Palgrave 2016); translation of Behrouz Boochani’s multi-award-winning autobiographical novel No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Picador 2018); co-editor of special issues for journals Literature and Aesthetics (2011), Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media (2019) and Southerly (2021); and co-translator/co-editor of Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani (Bloomsbury 2023).
An award-winning Iranian artist, architectural designer, journalist, and documentary film maker, Elahe Zivardar currently lives in Arizona, United States, where she obtained refugee status in 2019. After fleeing Iran, Elahe Zivardar was detained on the remote island of the Republic of Nauru for attempting to seek asylum in Australia from 2013 to 2019. During her detention in Nauru, she was highly active in using photos and video to document the horrific treatment and conditions endured by people seeking asylum and imprisoned offshore. An artist using diverse techniques including painting, photography and documentary filmmaking, Elahe Zivardar seeks to depict and raise awareness on how refugee, stateless and migrant minorities are treated throughout the migration process, especially at borders. In addition to her artwork, she is active as an advisor to international refugee rights campaigns and organizations in Australia, the UK and US.
RSVP for this event has closed. Please check our calendar for upcoming events. For any questions and/or concerns, please email admin.migration@ubc.ca.
