"Thinking the Camp Geographically" Lecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

On Tuesday 21 May 2024, the CO-SPACE Lab - Laboratory for the Study of Collective Practices for Space & Development (School of Spatial Planning & Development) and the Research Unit for South European Cities (School of Architecture) at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki hosted Professor Claudio Minca for a lecture entitled “Thinking the Camp geographically”. The lecture was introduced by Professor Panos Hatziprokopiou, and was followed by a lively question-and-answer session, raising questions related to the Greek context, to the Balkan Route, and the theorisation of camps more broadly. 

The lecture raised reflected on what camps are, and how they can be defined and theorized, given the breadth of camp studies today, encompassing heterogenous sites ranging from concentration camps to makeshift refugee encampments. Among other questions, the lecture asked, how can such diverse sites be understood in relation to modernity, to the nation state, and in terms of the form-of-life they produce? Within the context of the Balkan Route, camps are used differently by different actors, at different times, and in different sites. In the context of the corridor, camps are a key entry point for studying the geopolitics of migration in the region.