Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.
Sanctuary City: A Suspended State is a recent title by UVic Geography Alumna Jennifer Bagelman.
About the Book
Sanctuary City: A Suspended State traces the ancient concept of sanctuary up to the present day, revealing how the contemporary and supposedly hospitable ‘sanctuary city’ inadvertently entrenches a hostile asylum regime. This book specifically explores the UK-based sanctuary movement with a focus on Glasgow, host to the largest population of asylum seekers in the UK. Based on ethnographic research, Sanctuary City examines how sanctuary renders intractable the serious problem of protracted waiting, indefinitely deferring the rights of asylum seekers. Whilst illuminating how sanctuary functions as a technology that suspends many lives, this book also explores a myriad of subversive practices that politically challenge this waiting state. It is a timely and critical contribution to the study of hospitality and asylum.
About the Author
Dr. Jen Bagelman is currently a lecturer in human geography at the University of Exeter. She grew up on Coast Salish territories (Vancouver Island) and completed both her BA and MA at UVic. After finishing her PhD at the Open University, she lectured at Durham University then completed a two-year SSHRC funded postdoctoral fellowship at UBC. Her research specialisms include: citizenship; migration and displacement; asylum and sanctuary; food security; participatory research methods and creative outputs. Her twitter feed is @bagel_woman.
Dr. Bagelman will be taking part in this year’s Author Celebration, March 9, 2017. Other members on this year’s panel include: Donald Galloway (Law), Simon Springer (Geography), and Serhy Yekelchyk (Germanic & Slavic Studies). For more information about this and other IdeaFest events, please check out the website.
