The Department of English, the University of Hyderabad (UoH), hosted a three-day international conference titled Displacement from April 23rd to April 25th, 2025. This prestigious event was held in collaboration with the South-South Forum (SSF) at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA, and Southern Responses to Displacement at UCL, London, UK. Conducted in a hybrid mode, the conference brought together scholars and practitioners from across the globe to engage in rich discussions about the multifaceted issues surrounding displacement and migration. Held at the Zakir Hussain Lecture Hall Complex, University of Hyderabad, and convened by Dr. Sireesha Telugu with Dr. Bhaskar Lama as co-convener, the conference offered a platform for in-depth explorations into the politics, culture, and narratives shaping displaced communities’ experiences. Over three days, the conference facilitated a series of keynote addresses, paper presentations, poetry readings, roundtable discussions, and cultural events, fostering a dynamic exchange of ideas on the challenges, complexities, and resilience of displaced populations in contemporary society.
The inaugural session of the conference took place on the 23rd of April at 5:00 PM, with a formal greeting delivered by key dignitaries: Prof. MT Ansari, Dean of the School of Humanities and Dr. Murali Manohar, Head of the Department of English. Following the greetings, the conference convener, Dr. Sireesha Telugu, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Hyderabad, introduced the conference and its themes. Dr. Eman Shaban Morsi (Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College) and Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (UCL, London) spoke about the collaboration between Dartmouth College, USA, and UCL, London.
Prof. Rajini Srikanth, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA, delivered the inaugural keynote address, titled “Language as a Fragile Anchor for the Turbulence of Displacement.” Prof. Pramod K. Nayar, Department of English, University of Hyderabad, chaired this keynote. Prof. Srikanth explored the role of literature in articulating the complexities of forced migration and displacement. Drawing on the works of authors like Viet Thanh Nguyen, James Dawes, and Valeria Luiselli, she examined how storytelling can deliver justice and illuminate the lived realities of refugees, particularly children affected by harsh immigration policies. She discussed literature’s capacity to convey both the limits and power of language, referencing works like Tell Me How It Ends and Temporary People, while also invoking Giorgio Agamben’s and Nimmi Gowrinathan’s ideas on centring the displaced and transforming emotional capital into political agency. The session concluded with the audience’s questions on testimony, displacement, and the responsibilities of witnessing.
All the events on Day 1 were conducted in hybrid mode, and the session concluded with a vote of thanks. Cultural performances, including vibrant dance and musical presentations by students from the Department of English, took place from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
The second day of the conference began with the keynote address titled “Diaspora Engagement Beyond Climate Crisis” delivered by Prof. S. Irudaya Rajan, from the International Institute of Migration and Development, India. Dr. Salah Punathil, Regional Studies, UoH, chaired the session. Prof. Rajan explored the emotional, social, and political dimensions of migration, challenging the dominant economic narratives. He highlighted the lack of inclusive migration policies, especially for internal migrants affected by climate change and development failures. Drawing from personal experience and extensive research, he emphasised the emotional toll of migration on families, especially women and children in Kerala, whose relationships are sustained digitally due to separation. Prof. Rajan also critiqued the invisibility of migrants’ struggles, especially those from marginalised regions, and called for literary and scholarly engagement with migration as lived experience. He closed by stressing the need for policies that reflect the complex realities of both internal and international migration. The session concluded with a round of questions from the audience, reflecting the relevance and impact of the themes discussed.
The second day of the conference also featured a series of paper presentations and roundtable discussions. Dr. Nandini Ramesh Shankar from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad, chaired the session. The first paper was presented by Dr. Aneil Rallin, the author of “Dreads and Open Mouths: Living/Teaching/Writing Queerly” and co-editor of the “Queer and Now” special issue of “The Writing Instructor”. The paper was titled “Looking for Frail Brown Women in Punjabi Suits: Tracing South Asian Immigrant Settler Journeys, Locating Belongings.”, In their presentation, they offered a fragmentary yet evocative narrative that wove together personal, familial, and historical threads of migration and memory. Framed within the context of global crises, the talk traced intergenerational displacement through the lives of three women from their families. Everyday objects such as bifocal eyeglasses and a rolling pin became powerful vessels of memory, connecting Partition-era migrations from Lahore to Delhi and Toronto with the speaker’s journey from Bombay to Los Angeles. Highlighting the emotional toll of caregiving and the invisibilised labour of women migrants, Dr. Rallin illuminated how material culture, memory, and identity intersect in diasporic life. Their presentation served as a testament to the power of storytelling as resistance and remembrance. Following this, Abhilasha Sawlani presented her paper titled “Returning like an Opiro: (Re)Placing Roots in Sindhi Short Stories of Partition”. Focusing on Noorul Huda Shah’s Urdu short stories (translated by the speaker), she explored themes of rootlessness, displacement, and the imagined nature of home. Sawlani highlighted how these narratives challenge fixed ideas of nation and origin, presenting home as a space continuously reimagined through memory. The stories depict characters returning to ancestral lands as strangers, navigating alternative histories that allow for a broader, more fluid sense of belonging.
After the paper presentations, the magazine Elsewhere was officially inaugurated. It was edited by Liya Abi, Arjun Raj V, and Noah Simon Kolikapudi, research scholars in the Department of English.
Following the magazine inauguration, a special talk was delivered in hybrid mode by Divya Jose (Refugee Education, UK), titled “Inclusive and Promising Practices in Refugee Education (InsPPiRE): learnings from case studies in high-income countries”. Jose works on research projects that study the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking young people in accessing education in the UK and internationally. She talked about the necessity of quality education for refugee children, focusing on both the mother country’s language and the host country’s language. She discussed the development of inclusive educational policies for refugee children, based on case studies from 12 high-income countries. Jose highlighted four broad themes and 11 promising practices, emphasising the importance of language integration (both mother tongue and host country language) and bridge courses for refugee students. She also stressed the need for psychosocial support and a trauma-informed teaching workforce to aid students’ well-being. Concluding her talk, Jose underscored the significance of collaboration and incorporating the lived experiences of refugees in educational settings. An interactive Q&A session followed, where she addressed challenges related to culturally diverse groups and the impact of trauma on refugee education.
Session 3 featured parallel roundtable sessions in the afternoon. Panel A, titled “In Search of Lost Time: Memory, Affect, and Displacement,” was chaired by Dr. Goutam Karmakar from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. This session explored the varied themes of displacement through a rich array of literary texts and critical frameworks. The panel explored how memory, affect, and spatial dislocation shape displaced identities through literary texts. Presenters analysed themes of migration, colonial histories, ageing, food, and embodied memory, emphasising how these elements interact to create complex portrayals of resistance, survival, and cultural preservation. The session highlighted the affective and performative nature of memory, particularly how food, ageing, and daily routines serve as both sites of comfort and resistance in the context of displacement.
Panel B, titled “Seeing History, Seeing Movement: Displacement, Visual Media, and Archives,” was chaired by Dr. Girish D. Pawar, also from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The session explored the dynamics of displaced identities and cultures, with papers examining the role of visual storytelling in capturing the lived experiences of refugees, marginalised communities, and soldiers. The discussions emphasised the power of the visual and archival media in conveying the emotional and psychological impacts of displacement, highlighting themes such as alienation, trauma, and the tension between official narratives and personal experiences.
In Panel C, titled “A Cluster of Flowing Currents: The Individual, Self, and Displacement” (Online), chaired by Dr. B. Krishnaiah from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The panel explored various aspects of displacement and identity through literature. The session, held as an online roundtable, featured presentations on how displacement impacts selfhood, memory, and societal structures. Topics ranged from the psychological and emotional struggles of fractured identities in plays, class mobility in contemporary Indian fiction, nostalgia in Partition narratives, and diasporic trauma. The panel effectively illuminated the multifaceted nature of displacement and its role in shaping both individual and collective identities.
Panel D, titled “The Tilting World: Displacement and the Society” (Online), was chaired by Dr. Yakaiah Kathy from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The panel explored different forms of displacement, from war and linguistic shifts to urban fragmentation. Presentations included an analysis of war-driven displacement in The Spring River Flows East, focusing on personal loss and geopolitical conflict, the linguistic displacement within the Lambani community in Karnataka, and forced urban evictions in Karachi. The panel employed theoretical frameworks such as Judith Butler’s precarity, language maintenance, and collaborative governance to discuss the socio-political impacts of displacement, highlighting both personal and structural dimensions of dislocation.
Finally, Panel E, titled “Framing Motion: Displacement and Visual Cultures” (Online), was chaired by Prof. Sathya Prakash from the Department of Communications, University of Hyderabad. The panel delved into an exploration of how visual and literary representations shape our understanding of displacement, trauma, and identity. The session examined how photography can both document and dehumanize displaced subjects, particularly through gendered portrayals that strip individuals of agency. It also emphasized the importance of combining literature and film to convey the emotional and historical complexities of forced migration, and highlighted the intersection of ecological and linguistic displacement. Through these discussions, the panel underscored the ethical, political, and environmental dimensions of representing displacement in visual and narrative forms. The panel also offered a deep exploration of how visual and literary representations contribute to our understanding of displacement, identity, and memory.
The last session of the second day of the Displacement conference happened in hybrid mode from 04:00 pm. to 05:00 pm and was screened at G-9 Hall of Zakir Hussain Lecture Complex. Notable poets Prof. Yousif M. Qasmiyeh (University of Oxford), Shash Trevett (Poet and Translator), and Anthony Vahni Capildeo (Writer in Residence, University of York) shared some of their poetry with the audience via G-Meet. This session was chaired by Dr. Saradindu Bhattacharya, Department of English, University of Hyderabad.
Capildeo read their poetry while narrating several of her memories and accounts that made them write those poems. Trevett’s poetry explored her migration to the United Kingdom, European colonial encounters, various social issues like refugee crises, forced displacement, and her rather complicated relationship with her Tamil heritage. Prof. Qasmiyeh talked about his early memories of Palestine and the displacement of their family following the Palestine-Israel conflicts and how this particular event has had a profound effect on his poetry. Several of such memories were shared as Qamiyeh read some of his unpublished poetry on his exodus or journey from Palestine to the UK.
As part of the conference, a Map Project, organised by MA English students, featuring an interactive installation, was displayed, where the participants were invited to pin their places of origin. There was also another installation, Newspaper Display, which portrayed the different experiences of displacement within the UoH community. Both highlighted the themes of journeys and belonging, resonating with the overarching theme of displacement.
The final day of the conference began with a special talk series, titled Imagining the Refugee/Migrant: Forms and Representation. The first talk, titled “The Refugee Imaginary: Incarceration, Hyperincarceration, and Extreme Mobility,” was presented by Prof. Pramod K. Nayar. Prof Nayar explored how refugees and migrants are often dehumanised in media representations, portrayed as suffering “bare-life” and as threats to national security. He discussed the concept of “refugee imaginary” and its role in shaping societal perceptions, using the idea of an evolving archive to reflect human rights violations. Prof. Nayar also examined the hyperincarceration of migrants during the COVID lockdown, emphasising how isolation and exclusion exacerbate their precarity and diminish their agency. The session was chaired by Dr. Saradindu Bhattacharya from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The second talk, titled “Home and the World: Exploring Imagery through Artistic Engagement and Day-to-Day Life,” was presented by Dr. Tanmay Santra, Assistant Professor at the Department of Fine Arts, University of Hyderabad. He explored his personal experience of displacement, from West Bengal to Shantiniketan to Hyderabad, and how this shaped his artistic expression. Through a series of watercolour paintings, installations, and interactive works, he depicted the contrast between the lush environment of his childhood and the stark rock terrain of Deccan. Santra highlighted how displacement, memory, and home are central themes in his art, using various media like acrylic, dry pastel, and digital photography to explore the impact of construction and changes to his new surroundings.
Session 2, starting at 11:30 AM, was chaired by Dr. Siddharth Satpathy, Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The first presenter, K.S. Ahima, presented a paper titled “Exploring Hauntology and Feminine War Memory in the Narratives of Displacement.” The paper analysed the experiences of women during war, focusing on The Mountain Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai and White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht. Using the frameworks of Hauntology, gynocentric narration, and Femimemory, Ahima explored how these novels portray the trauma of forced displacement and the erasure of women’s histories during the Vietnam War and Japanese colonial rule. She emphasised the importance of preserving women’s voices in resisting historical forgetfulness and highlighted the intergenerational memory and shared trauma experienced by the women characters. The second presenter, Anindita Shome, presented her paper online titled “An Emergent Indian Digital Diaspora.” Her paper examined how Indian diasporic communities assert their identities and sustain transnational ties through digital platforms. Drawing on theories by Ponzanesi and others, she highlighted how digital tools enable cultural preservation, political participation, and intergenerational connection, while also analysing Indian government initiatives like the Know India Programme. Shome argued that the digital diaspora has become a powerful transnational entity, transforming India’s global presence through online engagement and cultural diplomacy.
Following the presentations, a student-made documentary titled “C/O: Hyderabad?”- created by Nehna, Jaitra and team- was screened from 12:30 PM to 12:45 PM. The documentary depicted the lives of migrants in Hyderabad city.
The afternoon session, starting at 1:45 PM, featured parallel roundtable sessions. Panel F, titled “Movement at the Margins: Displacement and the Politics of Othering,” was chaired by Dr. Sriparna Das from CALTS, University of Hyderabad. The panel explored varied experiences of displacement, particularly through gendered, regional, and diasporic lenses. The papers examined how displacement disrupts conventional notions of ‘home’—whether through ethnic conflict in Assam, social exclusion of widows, diasporic identity in Persepolis, or structural marginalisation in Rohinton Mistry’s fiction. A shared trend across the presentations was the redefinition of home as a metaphorical and emotional construct, often marked by exclusion, loss, and resilience. The panel also emphasised that displacement operates not only as a physical relocation but also as a deeply political and psychological condition, shaped by state policies, gender norms, and cultural narratives.
Panel G, titled “The World and All It Holds: Reading Migration, Liminality, and Society,” was chaired by Dr. Laboni Mukherjee from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The panel focused on the complexities of migration and displacement across military, environmental, socio-economic, and cultural contexts. The papers emphasised how structural forces—be it state policies, environmental disasters, pandemics, or labour systems—disrupt lives and identities, especially among marginalised communities. A recurring theme was the fragility of concepts like home, citizenship, and belonging, as seen through the lens of forced mobility, hybrid identities, and cultural memory. The session underscored the need to critically reassess how different forms of displacement produce liminality and demand nuanced support mechanisms.
Panel H, titled “Precarious Belonging: Homing, Mobility, and Marginalisation” (Online), was chaired by Dr. Pushpanjali Sampathkumar from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. This interdisciplinary panel explored the complexities of displacement, identity, and belonging through diverse socio-political, literary, and cultural lenses. It explored diverse experiences of displacement across intersecting axes of queerness, caste, gender, and indigeneity. Presenters challenged dominant narratives by highlighting how marginalised identities negotiate belonging through resistance, reimagination, and cultural practices—from redefining queer identity in India and theorising “un/home” in the diaspora, to centring Dalit refugee experiences, diasporic women’s subversions, and indigenous tattooing as archival resistance. The discussions emphasised that displacement is not merely spatial but also deeply epistemic and emotional, requiring activist scholarship and ethical engagement. The session concluded with critical questions on liminality and responsibility, urging collective reflection on rethinking precariousness itself.
Panel I, titled “Exploring Displacement and Identity” (Online), was chaired by Dr. Purna Chandra Naik from CCL, University of Hyderabad. The panel focused on how memory, narrative, and identity intersect in the aftermath of forced migrations. Across papers, a recurring theme was the erasure of marginalised voices—particularly Dalit refugees, Cambodian genocide survivors, and even speculative figures like de-extinct beings—and the role of storytelling in reclaiming silenced histories. Presenters critiqued dominant state or scientific narratives that overlook caste, trauma, and ethical complexities, instead highlighting memory as a form of resistance. The session offered an interdisciplinary lens on how displacement reshapes not only geography but also subjectivity, culture, and historical consciousness.
The conference concluded with the Valedictory Session at 3:30 PM. The keynote address, titled “Displacement: Moments of Meaning-Making,” was delivered by K Narayana Chandran, former Professor at the University of Hyderabad. Prof Chandran reinterpreted displacement as a natural and potentially meaningful part of human existence rather than merely a melancholic condition. Drawing on Mieke Bal’s concept of “moments of meaning-making,” he connected displacement to daily phenomena, ranging from death and media to textual fragments, arguing that acts of (dis)placement enable deeper understanding and continual reinterpretation. He emphasised that both texts and lives are inherently unfinished and constantly evolving, and thus meaning emerges through processes like re-reading and reflection. His talk offered a philosophical reimagining of displacement as essential to growth, transformation, and the human search for meaning. Prof. Anna Kurian chaired the session from the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The event concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr. Bhaskar Lama, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Hyderabad, the co-convener of the conference.
*This is an abridged version of the detailed report.
Compiled by Arya P and Edited by Laboni Mukherjee
The individual reports are written by:
Amala VK, Bihan Bandyopadhyay, Keerthana Haridas, Reshma J, Sumana Sinhababu, Nandhanaa P.J., Ann Maria, Ahamed Irfan S, Asiya MS, Muneeb Ul Haq, Khushi Goswami, Oinam Arzoo Chanu, Silka Jayapadme, Nehna Muhammad O, Milony Richa Mathew, Farsana Thasni, Sharmistha Sahoo, Ansha Hiba K M, Abhijeeta Kujur, Madhurima Bairagi, Ibalarishisha Syiem, Lallianpuii, Abhinav TM, Aditi Chattopadhyay