SECUREU Workshop

Rethinking Securitization and Ontological Security in the Wake of Catastrophe

September 29-30, 2023 | Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey

Access the final program here.

This final workshop of the SECUREU network builds on the Opening Symposium held at IBEI, Barcelona, on 25-26 November 2021 and the 2nd SECUREU Conference held at the University of Glasgow, 6-7 October, 2022. To be held in the wake of the devastating February 6, 2023 earthquakes in Turkey, the main goal of the final workshop will be to synthesize the common themes of the SECUREU network, namely securitization and ontological security, by applying them to the notion of catastrophe.

As argued by Claudia Aradau and Rens van Munster, ‘catastrophe best captures the sense of limit or tipping point invoked by an unexpected future that introduces a temporal disruption of the present. Certainly catastrophic in terms of the scale of death and destruction they caused, the February 6 earthquakes thus also invite us to re-assess the politics surrounding the experience as well as anticipation of events that exceed the limit of the expected in terms of likelihood and destruction.

We are particularly interested in papers that explore how anticipated or actual risks, dangers, and disasters have affected securitization dynamics in different polities/societies. How have developments such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, terror attacks, and natural disasters changed collective identity narratives and us/them distinctions? How do they affect the relations between majority and minority groups and migrants and host societies? Does the collective experience or anticipation of danger, disaster, and catastrophe pave the way to more inclusive constructions of identity or human-centered notions of security? In what ways do disasters function as turning points for securitization, de-securitization, or counter-securitization? How is ontological security re- instituted following encounters with the unexpected? How are collective traumas about past catastrophes shaped and inform the present?

The workshop is planned to include 10-12 paper presentations from invited speakers and members of the SECUREU network on 29 September. The participants are also invited to stay on to attend the first day of the ontological security workshop at Koc University, which will be featuring invited speakers such as Catarina Kinnvall, Brent Steele, Jelena Subotic, Karl Gustafsson, Filip Ejdus, Amir Lupovici, Dmitry Chernobrov, and Xymena Kurowska on 30 September. More information about this workshop will be available in coming weeks.

Interested participants are kindly asked to send title and 300 words abstract of their contribution to Bahar Rumelili, brumelili@ku.edu.tr, by 30 June 2023.