Theories of hauntology emphasize how past experiences leave an imprint by re-appearing in people’s present lives, affecting emotions and gendered reactions. This talk draws on these theories to illuminate how the mother’s ghostly presence, intertwined with the long spectre of the border regime, affects men’s masculinities as they un-settle in European countries. Dr. Ingvars’ work is based on ethnographies conducted mainly in Greece and Germany between 2012-2021, centred around masculinities among activists from Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan nation states. Recurrent discussions about their mothers revealed shifting emotions such as fierce admiration and benevolent protectiveness, repressed anxieties and bridled humour, moral obligations and desires for labour autonomy. 

Dr. Árdís K. Ingvars is an adjunct in Sociology and a researcher at the GEST Program and RIKK – Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference, at the University of Iceland. Currently, she focuses on the experiences of queer refugees who are deported to Italy and Greece on the Dublin grounds. She is, furthermore, associated with a research team on men in migration at the Centre for Gender Studies at Karlstad University in Sweden where she continues to follow refugee activists as they un-settle in Germany.