Updated program and registration link available here: https://queermigrations2.my.canva.site/

Date: December 14 2025 (Sunday)

Venue: Design and Creative Center Kobe (KIITO)

Language: English 

Hosted by the Kobe Migration Research Centre, Kobe University

Featuring Shu Lea Cheang (artist and filmmaker), Skye R. Tinevimbo Chirape (University of Tokyo) & Haile Matutu (University of Cape Town), Shubha Kayastha (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), and a roundtable on migrant sex work with Giovanna Rincon (Acceptess-T), Fairy Abdulghani (Regional Coordinator, Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers), Chihiro Toya (SOAS University of London).

The second Queer Migrations Symposium of 2025 brings together scholars, activists, and artists to critically engage with the intensifying hostilities faced by queer migrants worldwide. In an era marked by rising nationalism, anti-migrant, anti-egalitarian policies and transphobic violence, this symposium centres queer experiences of displacement, resistance, and belonging.

We aim to challenge dominant narratives of borders and citizenship by foregrounding decolonial perspectives that unsettle colonial logics and state-centric migration regimes. While digital technologies continue to shape visibility and mobility, our focus turns to the structural and affective violences that queer migrants navigate daily--from asylum systems and surveillance mechanisms to social exclusion and erasure.