2024-2025 Theme: Ecology
The Media + Migration Lab constantly works to refine our social and political understanding of migration, which involves maintaining unwavering attention to the continued global conflicts that force the migration of millions of people around the world.
The conflict in Gaza, and now Lebanon, is in its fourteenth month, and the genocide has resulted in the death of over 40,000 Palestinians and immense destruction of land and infrastructure. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 persists and has resulted in millions of refugees. Since April 15th, 2023, it is projected that over 60,000 people have been killed in Sudan and the internal displacement has exceeded 3.4 million.
In light of the current geopolitical context, the Media + Migration Lab has established the theme of 2024-2025 as Ecology. Ecology is defined as the exploration of environments created by an object, idea, or theory, and the role humans play in shaping our habitats. Through this theme, we are adopting a lens that is geared towards factors that are palpably present in our current moment: migration, land, and violence.
Considering the state of our planet’s health, and the interconnected human suffering and struggle, it is not surprising that both artistic and popular media are increasingly engaging with ecological issues. By centering ecology, we are calling attention to entries that highlight the key ecological principles of diversity and interdependence or connectivity. Media images, representations, art, and commentary around migration shape our understanding, or mental maps, of migration. By studying the ecology of these media, we are studying the cultural and natural environment that they create.
To this end, we’ve added two new key words to our Concepts page on the Migration Mapping project: Ecology and Infrastructure. With a greater emphasis on the ecology of migration, these essays provide an overview of the term alongside further readings, viewings, and examples from our media datasets.
Click on one now to browse through the materials we’ve collected!
M.M.
Data Entry Spotlight: Foragers by Jumana Manna (2022)
Directed and produced by Jumana Manna, Foragers incorporates documentary, fiction, and archival footage to display the impact of Zionist migration to, and occupation of, Palestine. The film centers around Palestinians who risk heavy fines and imprisonment for violating Israeli foraging restrictions, and connects these stories to broader themes of alienation, community, and political economy. Both contemplative and wry, Manna’s film poignantly displays the tension between migration, ecology, and homeland in occupied Palestine.
M.M.
Upcoming
January, 2025
On the Migration Mapping website, look forward to our upcoming discussion of Echoes from the Borderlands, an audio installation that engages with violence of land and bodies at the US-Mexico Border by Valeria Luiselli at Dia Chelsea in New York City.
Spring, 2025
Sinha Fellow Maggie Meyer will also be producing a new project for the M2Lab website. Stay tuned!
Become an M2Lab contributor
Do you research, write, or create projects around media and migration? Check out our Submissions page to see how you can get your projects and writings hosted on M2Lab and its Migration Mapping project.
These updates developed as part of the Sinha Memorial Fellowship, which is awarded yearly by The New School’s School of Media Studies.
Header image: Foragers (2022), Jumana Manna. Retrieved from https://www.jumanamanna.com/Foragers