YorkSpace

YorkSpace is York University's Institutional Repository. It supports York University's Senate Policy on Open Access by providing York community members with a place to preserve their research online in an institutional context.

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    Remote Choreography and Monster: Moving Beyond the Human in Transatlantic Dance and Interdisciplinary Performances of the Long Nineteenth Century (1750-1914)
    (2026-10-20) Priya Ann Thomas; Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt
    This dissertation examines four nonhuman discursive constructs materialized in transatlantic dance and interdisciplinary performances of the long nineteenth century (1750-1914). Turning to these performances as case studies, I demonstrate that the transgressive movements of creaturely others in theatrical performance served as the fulcrum by which state-sanctioned and culturally acceptable norms pertaining to the human were repeatedly negotiated and reassembled. My fundamental premise is that not only did choreography intersect with discourses of the normative in the production of the nonhuman ‘other’ on the theatrical stage, but choreography, as patterned movement, was a cardinal axis by which the human’s ‘other,’ the nonhuman, was generated and performed. Unearthing findings both archival (text, aural and visual records) and ethnographic (interviews with human participants) pertaining to this diverse assemblage of interdisciplinary performances, I argue that the movement qualities of creaturely others deemed peripheral enabled in each case, a choreographic reconsideration of the parameters of the normative human. Three of the case studies (the automaton, the sylphide and the yogi) are situated firmly within the long nineteenth century, while the fourth and final construct of the ghost straddles the nineteenth century and the twenty-first, drawing links between precedent performances of the ghost and instantiations of the virtual within dance and performance studies. The primary contribution of this dissertation resides in its singular approach to the historiography of the nonhuman (and the monster in particular) as choreographic constructs. Supplementing existing understandings of the monster produced in literary studies, anthropology, religious studies and other disciplines, it posits that the perturbing difference constituted by the monster in particular, obtains not solely from its morphology, but from its aberrant mobility, i.e. those provocative motions choreographed to represent its distance from the human. Choreographed movement, I argue, is the cardinal axis of the monster’s magnified, ‘kaleidoscopic’ difference. My findings reveal that the dissertation’s discursive constructs are related through a common subset of artistic techniques and technologies that deploy ‘remoteness.’ Accordingly, I advance ‘remote choreography,’ a theoretical paradigm that addresses the nonhuman as ‘illegible’ recruit, a surrogate situated to perform and make visible the nonhuman’s distance from the normative through movement. These displays of difference I contend, respond to the presence of real historical actors deemed to likewise transgress or exceed the human. As a result, the nonhumans examined are also marked by a polysemy observable through conflations and continuities in the performance of difference across separate chapters. Proceeding from this, I argue that the nonhuman is a hypothetical other, a palimpsest repeatedly materialized in relation to discourses of legitimacy (and the human) developed not only in politico-philosophical, religious, biomedical and artistic contexts, but also under normative frameworks of the law. Accordingly, the choreographic representation of the nonhuman in multiple disciplines (dance, theatre, performance studies, religious studies) is shown to intersect crucially with tangible socio-political realities, impacting discourses pertaining to human rights, disability, technosensuality and biopower. In this way, ‘remote choreography’ used as a theoretical paradigm, advances knowledge of not only the socio-political function of nonhumans in multiple disciplines (dance, theatre, religious studies), but also identifies choreography as a powerful tool that may be used to actively intervene in changing historical understandings of the human.
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    Conflict, drought, and displacement: determinants of return intentions among South Sudanese refugees
    (Springer, 2026-07-13) Tefera, Tadele Muche
    Refugees’ return decisions are shaped by past trauma, present conditions, and future aspirations. This study examines how pre-flight reasons and exile circumstances influence return intentions and timing among South Sudanese refugees. Using UNHCR’s 2019 Regional Intention Survey for 6,547 households across six asylum countries, the analysis develops an integrated framework linking pre-displacement experiences, host-country contexts, and individual vulnerabilities. Multinomial and binary logit models reveal that displacement drivers create durable path dependencies: refugees fleeing generalised violence show higher return propensity, while those experiencing targeted persecution face persistent barriers even amid improved security. Drought-displaced refugees remain undecided. Host-country policies significantly shape outcomes: progressive regimes like Uganda reduce the likelihood of return by facilitating local integration, while restrictive environments like Ethiopia act as push factors. Exile duration introduces non-linear dynamics, with return intentions peaking at 4–6 years before declining as exile capital accumulates. Heterogeneity emerges by pre-flight occupation, gender, and legal status. Agricultural workers demonstrate strong short-term return intentions, whereas professionals delay or forgo return. Legal documentation reduces return intentions by enhancing integration prospects.
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    Border Necrotechnics: Automation, Surveillance, and the Racial Politics of Migration Control
    (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026-08-13) Molnar, Petra
    This open access book examines how emerging border technologies such as AI-driven risk scoring, autonomous surveillance towers, biometric identity systems, predictive analytics, and algorithmic decision tools reshape the criminalization and securitization of migration. Positioned at the intersection of criminology, critical migration studies, and socio-technical analysis, this book argues that AI and other autonomous surveillance technologies do not simply "manage" migration: instead, these tools actively produce racialized suspicion, legitimize expanded policing, and enable new forms of pre-emptive control over people-on-the-move, often leading to adverse outcomes including discrimination, racism, and even death. The term border necrotechnics describes the assemblage of automated systems, infrastructures, and practices through which states and corporations decide which lives are rendered killable, deportable, or indefinitely surveilled at and beyond the border. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship, this book situates border AI and surveillance within a broader genealogy of punishment, racialized security practices, and the policing of global mobility. The author argues that AI systems automate historical logics of exclusion, embedding them in digital infrastructures that appear neutral yet replicate deep structural inequalities. Through ethnographic interviews and field observations it offers rare insight into how people experiencing forced displacement encounter emerging surveillance technologies firsthand.
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    Libertos y libertas de Augusta Emerita (Mérida): problemas de identificación
    (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2025) Edmondson, Jonathan Charles; López Barja de Quiroja, Pedro; Caldelli, Maria Letizia
    The study discusses problems of identifying freedmen and freedwomen in the epigraphic record of Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain). It compares the onomastics of certainly identified freedpersons with those of freeborn citizens and so called "incerti" to advance the discussion of how we can identify ex-slaves among the colony's population.
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    Crossing borders without papers: how food insecurity fuels irregular migration in the MENA region
    (Springer, 2026-06-22) Marakbi, Réda; Oluwatobiloba Adedayo, Ogunmakin
    This paper examines how food insecurity shapes migration aspirations and their orientation toward irregular migration in the Middle East and North Africa. Using micro-data from the seventh wave of the Arab Barometer, we construct an experiential index of food insecurity and distinguish between overall migration aspirations and willingness to consider irregular migration among prospective migrants. Probit and sample-selection probit estimates show that food insecurity is positively associated with the probability of considering emigration and, conditional on having considered emigration, with willingness to migrate without the required papers. These findings suggest that food insecurity is related not only to the formation of migration aspirations, but also to the orientation of these aspirations toward irregular pathways among prospective migrants. The results remain robust across subsamples, alternative measures of food-insecurity intensity, and instrumental-variable probit specifications using Covid-related assistance as instruments for food insecurity. These findings suggest that development and humanitarian aid aimed at reducing food insecurity can play a critical role in mitigating irregular migration pressures and should be integrated into broader migration and development strategies.