Parks, wastelands, building sites and overgrown ruins all offer urban ecologies for a multitude of non-human city dwellers. But who do these spaces belong to? Who gets to decide what happens here? This interactive event in the (de)Bordering plot asks participants to consider non-humans as citizen species.

Julia Morris, Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will guide us through a collaborative session that accounts for the interests of the plot’s many non-human actors. We will reimagine how to live together in a context where all living beings, from elder trees, robins, and snails to root nodule bacteria, are accorded the same right to political participation. In de-centering anthropocentric views of the city, we will explore new perspectives on citizenship, territory, and cohabitation.

Julia Morris is Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research focuses on the material overlaps that take shape between humans, animals, and things in practices of migration governance. Her book, Asylum and Extraction in the Republic of Nauru, is recently published with Cornell University Press.

Venue:

The (de)Bordering plot is situated here, next to the Physics Building in Royal Fort Gardens, opposite the Ivy Gate Building. You can read more about the plot on our webpage.

The venue is open air - if rain is forecast please bring umbrellas and wet weather gear!

For access information, this AccessAble webpage for Royal Fort House (next to the plot) provides information regarding Blue Badge parking and accessible toilets. The paths leading to the plot from Tyndall Avenue do not have steps.

Please note, registration will end at 9am on 3rd May.

Territory and Citizens: Reimagining Cohabitation in the City