This experiential workshop will explore how border governance relates to ways memory is
shared and recuperated across two sites: the Irish Republic and North African migration to Italy.
We explore memory as not fixed, but as shaped by everyday practice of border procedures,
migration policies and public resistance.
Karenjot Bhangoo Randhawa shares work on mapping Italian border procedures—expedited
timelines, limited translation practices and record keeping—and their effects on migrants’
memories. Her presentation underlines how border regimes legitimize some memories while
sidelining others. She notes the danger of first-reported records becoming entrenched, and
suggests how small design changes can enhance memory and identity preservation.
Michelle LeBaron assesses how Irish migration practices—and the Irish polity—treat migrants'
memories. She describes recent, increasing conflict around migration and the effects on
memories of home for both Ukrainian and African migrants, analyzing “live” tensions
surrounding these memories.
Using the Japanese art of kintsugi as a metaphor, presenters will then identify ways that
memories might be recouped as broken pottery is repaired with lacquer and gold—without
erasing fractures. Reading memory-related processes through four touchstones of
kintsugi—including all broken pieces; patient attention during repair; working safely with
“toxic” materials; and embracing complexity and beauty—they highlight how the way
memories are received can be toxic: urushi lacquer is hazardous before curing, yet it is essential
to creating a firm bond.
Two hands-on components follow. First, participants will rejoin two small pieces of pottery to
experience kintsugi repair. Second, they will analyze vignettes of migrant memory from Ireland
and Italy. We will debrief by exploring how kintsugi can inform border procedures that reflect
neuroscientific understandings of memory functions, and how memories may be recuperated
through changes to trauma-sensitive pacing, procedures and policies. We will distribute a
checklist of practices for kintsugi-inspired memory recuperation.
20260729T140020260729T1530America/Argentina/Buenos_AiresWORKSHOP: Border Memory Regimes from Ireland to the Central Mediterranean: Using Kintsugi as a MetaphorSV302MSA Buenos Aires 2026buenosairesconference@memorystudiesassociation.org
