Academy in Exile is hosting the international symposium Cultures of Refuge: Climate, Flight, Refuge, supported by TU Dortmund University, the Mellon Foundation, VolkswagenStiftung, and UA Ruhr North America. The symposium takes place from Thursday, 15 October 2026 (2–8pm) to Friday, 16 October 2026 (9–6pm) at the International Meeting Center (IBZ), Emil-Figge-Str. 59, 44227 Dortmund, Germany.
Recognizing that the very concept of ‘refuge’ is undergoing a fundamental change, the symposium investigates modern sanctuary frameworks and the implications of their transformation. By examining refuge in various contexts and from multidisciplinary perspectives, it asks to what extent ethical and political obligations to provide refuge still hold in an environmentally degraded and increasingly conflictual, authoritarian world.
The keynote addresses are given by Ranabir Samaddar (Migration and Forced Migration, Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, India) and Sonja Dümpelmann (Environmental Humanities, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). Other speakers include Itamar Mann (University of Haifa/Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), Julia Teixeira Mourão Permoser (Donau Universität Krems), Bella Mosselmans (New School for Social Research), Thomas Beery (Kristianstad University), Friedemann Yi-Neumann (Georg-August Universität Göttingen), Niall Peach (University of Cincinnati), and Joela Jacobs (University of Arizona).
Along with two days of panels and poster presentations, artist Dana van Rijssen shows sculptures from her collection “What Throws Us Away,” together with artwork created by TU Dortmund University students and Academy in Exile fellows during the “Creating Refuge” seminar offered by Vanessa Agnew and van Rijssen in early 2026. Academy in Exile’s exhibition “What Grew at Home,” curated by Agnew, with photography by Jobst von Kunowski, is shown for the first time, along with the digital project “Minecraft Garden(s) of Refuge.”
As part of the symposium on Friday, 16 October, Academy in Exile’s Garden(s) of Refuge is officially opened with a ceremony. The garden, located on the TU Dortmund University campus, is a mini forest planted with the help of Applied Literary and Cultural Studies students, AiE fellows and team members, and families from the HoKiDo Kindergarten, with the aim of connecting ecological restoration to questions of displacement, belonging, and public space. The garden opening will take place from 10-12 am on that day.
For questions and to register (by 15 September 2026), please contact Kira Heetpaß (kira.heetpass@tu-dortmund.de).