The legacy of Brexit: mobility and citizenship
in times of uncertainty
Part of the Sociological Review Research Seminar Series The sociology of ‘Brexit’: citizenship,
belonging and mobility in the context of the referendum on EU membership
Funded by The Sociological Review Foundation
Friday, 31 March 2017
Building 2, Room 1089, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton
Keynote speakers:
George Szirtes (Poet and translator)
Following the Brexit vote, the future status and rights of EU citizens resident in the United
Kingdom and UK citizens living in other EU countries has become uncertain. Whether to leave,
stay or protest are questions which now need to be asked and answered by all affected EU
‘migrants’. The third and final seminar in our series aims to explore these issues in detail, with a
particular focus on how ‘mobility’ and ‘citizenship’ are experienced in the current circumstances.
Bringing together the latest empirical research on mobile EU citizens in the context of the Brexit
vote, the seminar will provide an insight into existential anxieties, practices of belonging and new
forms of transnational activism.
On a secondary level, and in answering the broader post-disciplinary aims of the series, the
seminar wishes to resensitise sociological epistemologies to the ‘fringes’ surrounding ‘every word
and every sentence’ uttered by social actors, the ineffable ‘halo of emotional values and irrational
implications’ which ‘are the stuff poetry is made of; they are capable of being set to music but they
are not translatable’ (Alfred Schütz, The Stranger, 1944). It is, however, only by attempting to
‘translate’ and interpret these ‘fringes’ of discourses and actions that the sociology of ‘Brexit’ can
make sense of the various experiences of the unfolding events.
Registration is free of charge. Complimentary lunch and refreshments will be
provided.
Please register your attendance through Eventbrite.co.uk
For more information about the seminar series, please follow
our Facebook page, or visit https://sociobrexit.wordpress.com/.
Alternatively, scan the QR code.
George Szirtes
George Szirtes (b. 1948) was born in Hungary and came to England as a refugee with his parents—
survivors of concentration and labour camps—after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. He was brought
up in London, going on to study fine art in London and Leeds, and achieving literary prominence as
a poet, translator, editor and broadcaster. His first book, The Slant Door (1979), won the Faber
Memorial Prize. Bridge Passages (1991) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Prize. Reel (2004)
won the T.S. Eliot Prize, for which he was again shortlisted for The Burning of the Books (2009) and
Bad Machine (2013). For his translation work Szirtes has won several awards, including the Dery
Prize for Imre Madach’s The Tragedy of Man (1989) and the European Poetry Translation Prize for
Zsuzsa Rakovsky’s New Life (1994). His translations of László Krasznahorkai's works were awarded
the Best Translated Book Award in the US (2013, for Satantango) and the Man Booker
International Prize (2015). He has also written extensively for radio and is the author of more than
a dozen plays, musicals, opera libretti, and oratorios.
While studying painting at Leeds with Martin Bell, Szirtes began to develop his poetic themes: an
engaging mix of British individualism and European fluency in myth, fairy tale, and legend. The
tension in Szirtes' haunting poems is partly a result of displacement and the consequent
negotiation between a European sensibility and English culture. His poems reject the simplifications
that belonging—to a country, religion or political movement—can demand. Thus the process of
assimilation is satirised in 'Preston North End' where his Englishness is learnt through football's
tribal loyalties until "I pass the Tebbitt test. I am Alan Lamb,/Greg Rusedski, Viv Anderson, the
boy/from the corner shop, Solskjaer and Jaap Stam." Though he offers no easy narratives or
identities he understands the impulse to try and make sense of the world through them. It's the
still slightly foreign music of his voice, the accent that is hard to place, which expresses the
complexities of his work so beautifully.
Listen to George on BBC Radio 3’s John Tusa Interviews:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ncz4c or scan the QR code:
Programme
From 08:45 Registration and coffee/tea
09:00
Introductions
09:15
Keynote talk
George Szirtes, Welcome to the UK: a refugee's view of acceptance, adaptation and
rejection
10:15
Short break
10:30
Session 1. (Br)Exit: fears, reactions and uncertainties of belonging
Eleanor Knott (LSE), "For the first time here in this country I felt like an immigrant":
identity, citizenship and EU immigration after the UK-EU Referendum
Susan Collard (University of Sussex), British citizens or European citizens? Rethinking
Citizenship post Brexit amongst Britons living in the EU
Chris Allen and Özlem Ögtem Young (University of Birmingham), What next, where
next? Post-Brexit fears among secondary migrant Somali Muslims in Birmingham
Discussion
12:00
Buffet lunch
13:00
Session 2. Loyalty? Experiences of citizenship and naturalisation
Emilia Pietka-Nykaza (University of the West of Scotland), Aspects of citizenship and
the meaning of citizenship: the complexities of Polish migrants’ citizenships in Scotland in
the context of Brexit
Pierre Monforte and Leah Bassel (University of Leicester), ‘Brexit’ and belonging:
experiences of naturalisation and the UK referendum
Djordje Sredanovic (Université Libre de Bruxelles), EU citizens in the UK and Britons
abroad: defensive naturalizations and institutional barriers
Discussion
14:30
Coffee/tea break
15:00
Session 3: Voice: Mobilisation and enactment
Charlotte Galpin, Verena Brändle and Hans-Jörg Trenz (University of Copenhagen),
Opening the Pandora’s Box of EU citizenship: online mobilisation during Brexit
Kuba Jablonowski (University of Exeter and the3million group), You don't have rights
- you use them! Enacting European citizenship in Brexit Britain
Discussion
16:00
Closing remarks