Innvandrersmitte/Immigrant-infection: A performance on news, immigration, belonging

Under the guidance of award-winning artist and storyteller Medha Zolfaqari, Archetti and Ranji will use a collage of selected excerpts of interviews and news stories they have analyzed as part of their study, as well as projected images to bring to life (literally) all that “academic” publications are unable to communicate: emotion, bodily reactions, humanity, empathy. Through the fragments of personal stories, including their own (both researchers are themselves immigrants), they will make concrete, tangible, relatable through emotion and personal experience for every member of the audience (we are all immigrants in one way or another) those “findings” that would otherwise remain abstract and remote: news and journalism do not merely provide us with information about what happens in society, rather they deeply affect our sense of belonging and “feeling at home.”

Archetti and Ranji both held lecture-performances before, such as in 2019 at Sentralen, as part of the programme “Det akademiske foredraget som scenekunst.” Archetti has further experience with creative non-fiction in research and teaching. Ranji, who was awarded H. M. Kongens Gullmedalje for her PhD thesis (HF, UiO) in 2020, was the first doctoral candidate in the history of doctoral defenses in the department of Media and Communication (IMK, HF, UiO) who, in her trial lecture, used elements of theatre and storytelling to communicate her research.