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Paper short abstract:

This paper traces transformations of bodily practices and experiences of legally precarious Syrians as these unfold in sensory contact zones connected to relations with host state authorities. It argues that such transformations forge new common ground on which belonging unfolds.

Paper long abstract:

Phenomenological approaches to issues of migrant illegality tend to highlight the ways in which legally precarious migrants are “always on guard” (Willen 2007, 18) or “constantly on the defensive” (Jackson 2008, 69). Such perspectives provide insights on the interconnections between experiential and sensorial aspects of migrant lives as they attest to the ways in which fear of deportation or lack of acceptance in your host society shape sensory attentions in everyday interactions (that again shape imaginations and self-perceptions).

Hoping to add to such perspectives and inspired by Janeja and Gill’s invitation to think through ‘sensory contact zones’, this paper argues that a unilateral focus on anxious alertness and fearful bearings in everyday encounters risks overlooking the ways in which bodily apprehensions and relaxations are co-constitutive also among migrants in legally precarious situations. Moreover, conceptualizing such experiential and sensory inclinations as “shock[ed responses to] the new” (ibid., title) is potentially problematic when studying migrants who engage in south-south migration. Among Syrian refugees in urban centers in Lebanon and Turkey, fear of authorities is not new. However, for this group of migrants specific avenues for bodily comportment in relation to authorities are newly transformed and such changes in turn shift the common ground on which belonging unfolds.

Through an ethnographic account of the ways in which Syrian refugees experience and conduct themselves bodily in public and semi-public sensory contact zones (like illegal obstetrics clinics, cafes, check points), the paper shows that transformed bodily practices shape new worlds and potentially world-views.

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Paper short abstract:

Since the mid-eighties, many young Caribbean hopefuls, unable to be part of the West Indies cricket team, seasonally migrate to play in a semi-professional cricket league in Trinidad. A focus on these migrant athletes in Trinidad offers a window into how masculinity is constructed through such postcolonial urban sensory contact zones.

Paper long abstract:

For a vast majority of young Caribbean men seeking to move out of poverty and obscurity, becoming a professional cricketer is arguably the most coveted life choice. A lucky few play for the West Indies cricket team, a supranational entity composed of players from 15 Caribbean countries, while the others play in competitions located in the constituent nations. Since the mid-eighties, many young Caribbean hopefuls, unable to be part of the West Indies cricket team, seasonally migrate to play in a semi-professional cricket league in Trinidad, one of the richest countries in the Caribbean. Guyanese players are the largest group of overseas athletes in the Trinidadian domestic cricket league. Although geographically located in South America, Guyana is historically and culturally part of the Caribbean and one of the poorest economies in the region. However, once in Trinidad, these athletes recognize that they cannot support themselves solely as cricketers and participate in various menial works arranged by the clubs. While being from Guyana creates the conditions of the athletes’ mobility, namely the opportunity to play cricket, it may also become an obstacle in everyday life, as when they are perceived as ‘backward’ because of their accent. To the dismay of many Trinidadian men, many of these athletes succeed in forming sexual and romantic relationships with Trinidadian women and permanently settle there. A focus on Guyanese athletes in Trinidad offers a window into how masculinity is constructed through such postcolonial urban sensory contact zones.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines efforts to rethink formal models of computation through the lens of indigenous philosophies, in particular Jainism, at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata during the 1950s. These efforts culminated in the imagination of a nonbinary Turing machine.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers the migration and hybridization of technical ideas, including mathematical and computational models, in postcolonial scientific institutions. My case study is centered at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata during the 1950s, then directed by Bengali statistician P. C. Mahalanobis. In the aftermath of formal independence from British colonial rule, Mahalanobis and his staff embarked on a quest to import or manufacture India's first digital computers. To consider the scientific laboratory as an urban contact zone for unexpected cultural encounters, I examine a collaboration between Mahalanobis and a migrant scientist, biologist J. B. S. Haldane, who left England and later became an Indian citizen. In particular, I focus on a lesser-known line of work by Mahalanobis and Haldane that existing historical accounts have mostly overlooked: efforts to rethink formal models of computation through the lens of indigenous philosophies, in particular Jainism. I analyze how these efforts culminated in the imagination of a nonbinary Turing machine, which would replace binary logic with the Jain sevenfold system of predication described in Sanskrit texts. By zeroing in on the story of the nonbinary Turing machine, I underscore how Indian scientists did not merely reconsider the moral implications of applying an existing computational technique or of choosing one piece of software or hardware over another. Rather, they aspired to radically rethink the most basic models and assumptions underlying modern computing. Their accomplishments and failures are instructive for those of us who grapple with the future possibilities and limitations of "decolonizing" computing.