Paper tigers or tiger papers ? Workshop on identity papers

The modern society seems unthinkable without the papers, such as identity cards, passports, driving licences, visas, etc., that govern our lives. The relevance of papers varies enormously for different people in different situations, but nowhere is their importance more clear than when one is migrating across borders or living as a migrant.

This interdisciplinary workshop will explore the history, production, use, meaning and value of such documents. It will particularly focus on the relationship between paper regimes and population mobility. The workshop will bring together researchers interested in these issues to exchange ideas and identify areas for further research. It will be organized as an open forum where a number of brief presentations are followed by open discussion.

Programme speakers and papers

Elspeth Guild (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

 Unreadable Papers? Biometrics in Practice

Anita Bocker (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

Eddy Higgs (University of Essex)

Documents as Identification in England, 1200-2000

Jane Caplan (University of Oxford)

Historical and Comparative Contexts for the Study of Identity Documentation in Modern Europe

 Ellie Vasta (University of Oxford)

The Paper Market: ‘borrowing' and ‘renting’ of identity documents

 Valpy Fitzgerald (University of Oxford)

The Economic Value of a Passport

Mika Toyota (National University of Singapore)

Asian Papers: from Japanese Koseki to Thai Multicoloured ID Cards

 Oliver Bakewell (University of Oxford)

Where the Tiger Does Not Roam: The Meaning and Use of Papers in North-West Zambian Borderlands