Spotlight On…Cathy Wilcock

(26 October 2017)

What are the key activities that you’re working on at the Manchester Migration Lab at the moment?

The main activity is our conference ‘World on the Move: Migration Societies and Change’ which runs from Monday 30 October to Wednesday 1 November. We’re having ten keynote speakers, three plenary discussion sessions, 14 panels, three performances and three workshops. We will be welcoming delegates from all six habitable continents, from 45 different academic institutions and 15 non-academic partners. As well as this, we are preparing some really exciting grant bids for future research projects. 

This week our Manchester Migration Month is focusing on ‘Belonging’, which is also the theme of an upcoming theatre performance based on Migration Lab research. What can you tell us about the performance, and how it’s shaped by the research?

The audience can expect an immersive theatre experience. The whole of Hope Mill will be transformed into a warehouse space on the edge of a border, audience members will have their papers checked and be given a map as they cross over the threshold. They will witness a short scripted play and then be left with their map to explore the installations in the space. 

It’s been shaped by research over months of sharing ideas through summary documents, presentations and a full-day workshop which involved eight academics from the Migration Lab. There is not really a single message to convey but it is intended to be a thought-provoking piece which asks people to question their own roles in producing hierarchies of belonging. Migration issues are often presented in the popular press with an ‘inside/outsider’ dichotomy, but we’d like to unsettle this and show that there are scales of grey within that which we are all complicit in creating and maintaining. 

Can you tell us about your role, and what you most enjoy about your work?

I am a research associate at the Migration Lab and I also co-ordinate the Lab. This year I’ve been given a lot of freedom to plan workshops and events and I’ve worked closely with partners outside of the University. There is also some time to work on my own publishing and research. I enjoy how varied the role is and how often it brings me into thought-provoking conversations with brilliant and interesting people. 

What’s the last book you read, and would you recommend it? 

The last book I read was Stoner by John Williams, after being recommended it by several people. It’s one of those books where practically nothing happens but somehow it’s completely compelling.