The securitization of Britis h citizenship in Levi David Addai’s Oxford Street
PhD Student\, English literature\, UBC
Monday January 23\, 12-1 PM
C. K. Choi Building- Choi 231
[ Bio ]
Shereen is a PhD student in English literature at the University of British Columbi a. She holds a MA in English from UBC and a BA CH in English and French fro m the University of Exeter. She primarily works on the politics of citizens hip and security in postcolonial francophone and anglophone literatures. He r doctoral project examines twentieth and twenty-first-century writing enga ged with the effects of immigration\, counter-terror\, and policing measure s across Britain and France.
[ About the Migration Grad Stude nt Power Hour ]
Over the past two decades\, the expans ion of bordering processes has fuelled an unprecedented rise in the number of people detained\, deported\, and deprived of British citizenship. Driven by disciplinary policies including (Section 60) Stop and Search\, the Host ile Environment\, and Prevent\, these exclusions have overwhelmingly target ed Black\, South Asian\, and Muslim people as potential threats to the nati on-state\, perpetuating legacies of colonial policing. This paper is concer ned with how 21st century postcolonial writing is emerging in the harsh lig ht of\, and in spite of\, intensifying securitisation across Britain. Speci fically\, I examine how Levi David Addai’s 2008 play Oxford Street stages t he encroachment of police\, immigration\, and counter-terror enforcement up on daily life through its impacts on low-paid workers at a Total Sports sto re. My analysis focuses on the character Kofi Graham\, a young Black London er precariously employed as a security guard\; I suggest that Kofi’s duty t o maintain order extends beyond the store to the state at large as his task s closely mirror those of British border officials. Yet racialised\, gender ed\, and classed criminal profiling also renders Kofi suspect in the eyes o f other characters\, highlighting the contingency of his position as both e mployee and citizen-subject. Through close readings of select scenes\, I tr ace Kofi’s struggle to navigate the tension between his own vulnerability t o scrutiny and the biopolitical imperative to produce himself as a vehicle of surveillance. I show how he approaches his role more critically than his fellow guards by challenging representations of illegality\, questioning r estrictions on freedom of movement\, and seeking alternative ways to resolv e the security breaches posed by the new employee Darren. I conclude by int erpreting both Kofi’s eventual resignation from Total Sports and Addai’s pl ay itself as departures from the disciplinary obligations increasingly atta ched to British citizenship.
[ About the Migration Grad Stude nt Power Hour ]
The Centre for Migration Studies Grad Studen t Power Hour provides opportunities for UBC graduate students to share thei r research on migration beyond their home departments and network with facu lty and students from across the university and in the broader community se ctor. The Power Hour begins with 10 minutes of networking opportunities\, f ollowed by a 30 minute talk and 20 minutes for discussion. Anyone is welcom e to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!
Please RSVP for thi s in-person event below.
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