A leading migration and politics scholar will deliver a prestigious lecture at Aberystwyth University later this week.

Addressed by Professor Bridget Anderson, the 2025 EH Carr Annual Memorial Lecture - widely regarded as one of the most distinguished lecture series in the field of international politics – will take place at 6pm on Thursday 23 October.

The talk, ‘Banal Citizens and Fantasy Migrants: Nationalism, Labour and Movement’, will examine the polarisation that many countries across the world are experiencing over migration.

The lecture aims to consider migrants and citizens together, ‘to recognise the differences, but not to assume them’ and to identify the processes through which migrant and citizen are made.

Bridget Anderson is Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at Bristol University. Her research explores human movement, and related experiences, politics, policies and practices, starting from a recognition that the differences between 'migrant' and 'citizen' are socially and legally constructed. She is the Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB), an interdisciplinary Faculty Research Centre across the Arts, Law and Social Sciences.

Speaking of the upcoming lecture which is open to the general public, Professor Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Director of Research in the International Politics Department, said: “By discussing migration and human mobility not as a threat but as a ‘part of life and living, and rich with possibilities for transformation, exchange and connection’, Prof. Anderson not only puts one of the pressing issues of our times into a wider context; she also invites us to rethink what it means to be a ‘citizen’ or a ‘migrant’ and how these socially constructed categories are intertwined. We are really excited to host Prof. Anderson’s talk at our Department.”

The lecture is sponsored by the journal International Relations and its publisher Sage as well as the David Davies Memorial Institute (DDMI).

The public lecture, ‘Banal Citizens and Fantasy Migrants: Nationalism, Labour and Movement,’ will place at 6.00pm on Thursday 23 October in the Main Hall of the International Politics Building on Aberystwyth University’s Penglais Campus.