Viapolitics: Borders, Migration, and the Power of Locomotion makes an argument for placing vehicles and routes at the centre of our thinking about the politics of borders and migration.

Whether the Komagatu Maru in the port of Vancouver in 1914, the deportation trains which crisscrossed the US in the 1920s, the vans that ferry migrant workers to and from Indonesia’s international airports, or the small boats on which migrants risk their lives traversing the Mediterranean, the book examines how vehicles are frequently central both as symbols and material objects to struggles about justice, mobility, and belonging. Yet often they are missing from migration scholarship.

Viapolitics makes these vehicles front and centre in our debates, allowing for new ways of approaching migration.

About the Editors
William Walters is professor in politics and sociology at Carleton University. His main research interests are secrecy and security, borders and migration, and mobility and politics. Recent publications include State Secrecy and Security: Refiguring the Covert Imaginary (Routledge, 2021), the co-edited Viapolitics: Borders, Migration and the Power of Locomotion (Duke UP, 2022) and the co-edited Handbook on Governmentality (Edward Elgar, 2023).

Lorenzo Pezzani is an architectural researcher. In 2015, he completed a PhD in Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is currently Lecturer and leads the MA studio in Forensic Architecture. His work deals with the spatial politics and visual cultures of migration, with a particular focus on the geography of the ocean.

Charles Heller is a researcher and filmaker whose work has a long-standing focus on the politics of migration. In 2015, he completed a Ph.D. in Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, focusing on migration and its control across the Mediterranean Sea. He is currently conducting postdoctoral research supported by the Swiss National Fund (SNF) at the Graduate Institute, Geneva and the University of Bologna.

About the Panelists
Philippe Frowd, Associate Professor Political Studies Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/3648

Azar Massoumi, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University https://carleton.ca/socanth/profile/azar-masoumi/