The conference will seek to interrogate the categories given and adopted by people on the move, drawing on an intersectional approach that considers race, class, ethnic and gender issues that have been associated with mobility. The focus on identities as a theme will enable the conference to explore these various intersections and how they play out across time and geographies, also paying attention to the multiplicity of artistic, literary, media and linguistic representations of exile, migration and diasporas. The focus on representation will foster the study of the tensions involved in identity crisis, ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ perceptions of living outside one’s home country, and the role of language (including artistic expression) in the processes of cultural adaptation.