Luiza Bialasiewicz

Working in collaboration with the Europe-Asia Platform on Forced Migration, Luiza Bialasiewicz's research while at the IWM focuses on the ways in which attitudes to migration are entangled with wider geopolitical dynamics. Focusing on the cases of Poland and Italy specifically, Bialasiewicz will look to how the actual "on the ground" geographies of migrant reception often differ significantly from their geopolitical representation by political actors. In particular, she examines the difference that scale makes in our analyses of migration, looking to the distinct role taken on by urban actors in the "work of reception" and the challenges that such a re-scaling of responsibilities for people on the move brings.

Much recent work on the illiberal turn in Europe points to the role of a geopolitics of fear in the rise of populist forces, but the focus is largely on representational practices and performances. My project looks instead to what critical geographers have termed ‘everyday affective geopolitics’. Building upon research on anti-migrant mobilization in European cities, it explores the changing political geographies of populism and illiberalism, examining how wider fears touch down in particular places and are made to ‘stick’ to particular bodies and sites.

Much recent work on the illiberal turn in Europe points to the role of a geopolitics of fear in the rise of populist forces, but the focus is largely on representational practices and performances. My project looks instead to what critical geographers have termed ‘everyday affective geopolitics’. Building upon research on anti-migrant mobilization in European cities, it explores the changing political geographies of populism and illiberalism, examining how wider fears touch down in particular places and are made to ‘stick’ to particular bodies and sites.

Luiza Bialasiewicz spent 2 months at the IWM during 2018 to work on her research “Embodied Geopolitics of Fear".