African Studies Center - TUFS (ASC-TUFS) will host the 67th ASC Seminar in collaboration with the Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University and Kanto branch of Japan Association for African Studies. We invite Dr. Mattia Fumanti, a senior researcher in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews, who will stay in Japan as a visiting researcher of Kyoto University, as a speaker.

How do migrants and their families living apart from them re-construct their intimate relations ? Dr. Fumanti will discuss what is important for them to re-configure their relations and citizenship "remotely".

◆Speaker: Dr. Mattia Fumanti (Visiting Researcher, Kyoto University / Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews)

◆Title: Intimacy, Citizenship and Transnational Family Lives Between London and Ghana

◆Abstract: This paper explores the ambiguous and complex ways in which migrants and their families re-imagine and re-construct in separation their intimate relations and in so doing rethink their place in the world also in relation to citizenship. Here I argue that they do so by entrusting people and possessions in the care of significant others and embodying the aspirations of those left behind for a better future, whilst harboring nostalgia and idealized memories of those left at home. Here I explore the affective and material ways in which family relations are reconfigured around the access to a host country and its job market in the diaspora, and the ways in which families can sustain common projects at home. The aim is to discuss how, through these entrustment practices, citizenship is reconfigured through intimacy and how this is done 'remotely'. The paper looks at how individuals' lives and material objects are entrusted in the care of others through material and financial obligations, including housing and employment. In this sense, citizenship is re-imagined intimately as the reconstruction of the self through intersubjective relations. Trust, entrustment, and the reconfiguration of family obligations are all crucial to understanding citizenship as intimate citizenship.

◆Date & Time: Monday, July 4, 2022 5:40 - 7:10 pm (JST) / 8:40 - 10:10 (GMT)

◆Venue: Onsite (Room 223, Research and Lecture Building, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) & Online (Zoom Meeting)

◆Language: English

◆Admission: Free

◆Pre-registration is required. Please visit here for registration by July 2, 2022. The application will be closed as soon as the capacity reaches 30 for onsite and 300 for online. We will send the Zoom Meeting information to the registered email address on July 3, 2022.

◆Jointly Organized by African Studies Center - TUFS, the Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University, and Kanto branch of Japan Association for African Studies