[Euromixproject.rch] CFP IMISCOE - Privileged mobility and transnational conjugality: reconsidering global power relations from an intersectional and intimate perspective

[Laure Sizaire]

Dear colleagues, 

I would like to share with you a call for papers for the panel “Privileged mobility and transnational conjugality: reconsidering global power relations from an intersectional and intimate perspective” that will be proposed to the IMISCOE annual conference Paris-Aubervilliers, from July 1-4, 2025 (see panel description below).  

If you wish to participate, please submit an abstract (max. 250 words), including the title, author name(s), affiliation(s), and contact information to the panel convenors at laure.sizaire at ulb.be and asuncion.fresnoza at ulb.be by September 19.

Feel free to circulate the call among your contacts.



“Privileged mobility and transnational conjugality: reconsidering global power relations from an intersectional and intimate perspective”

Global Western migrations are often framed through concepts and terms, such as “lifestyle migrations”, “privileged mobility”, and “white migrations”, highlighting how privilege (typically tied to whiteness, middle-class status, and heterosexuality) plays a crucial role in these phenomena. Despite their multifaceted nature (encompassing expatriates, retirees, tourists, and others), these migrations are often depicted as reproducing unequal power dynamics and creating social distances from citizens of host countries. However, research on transnational families reveals that Westerners also form conjugal relationships and families in these new settings. A paradox emerges here: how can social distance and unequal power coexist within such relationships? Shaped by social, historical, political-economic, and gendered forces, these intimate mobilities, such as Western women partnering with African men, or Western men with post-Soviet or Asian women, offer a compelling context to interrogate the notion of privilege from an intersectional and intimate perspective. 

From this angle, the panel raises questions such as: How gendered transnational conjugality challenge, reinforce or transform privileged Western positions? What drives Westerners to establish permanent residences and families in settings where matrimonial and gender norms significantly differ from their countries of origin? Are global power relations renegotiated within these intimate partnerships, and how do couples manage divergent values, norms, and behaviors? How do individuals deal and navigate between different normative regimes (gender, race, class), especially in the context of Islamic countries? 

Contributions may explore, but are not restricted to, the renegotiation of race, gender, and class relations in both intimate and global contexts; the reinforcement or destabilization of Western positionalities in transnational conjugalities; the integration of partners into the host society and their interactions with the local community; power dynamics within couples; relationships with stepfamilies and living arrangement; organisation and decision-making when couples have children (such as travel between the host society and the West); and the process of couple formation. Priority will be given to qualitative and empirical research. 



Panel convenors: Laure Sizaire (Université libre de Bruxelles, LAMC) , Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot, Université libre de Bruxelles (Université libre de Bruxelles, LAMC). 
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