What is considered a taboo and a border crossing can be defined very differently in different cultures. When people from different cultures meet, ignorance of the taboos of others can easily become a stumbling block in communication. Which taboos and border crossings emerge in migration and integration processes? Which taboos inhibit the integration process? Are there taboos and transgressions that promote integration? Scholars will examine these and other questions about the boundaries of communication in the context of migration and integration on 22 June 2017 at the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek (SLUB). The international conference "Taboo and Transgression. The Power of the (Un)Told" is dedicated to topics such as hate speech, taboo speech and generally the relationship between taboo and transgression in intercultural communication. The aim of the conference is first to clarify and sharpen basic concepts such as taboo, transgression, integration, post-migrant society. In a further step, the participants will deal intensively with silence and transgression in actions, in communication and in language from an interdisciplinary perspective and jointly develop perspectives for taboo-sensitive integration research.

As an accompanying programme to the academic conference, the SLUB will host a public author reading and a workshop on Persian literature on 21 June 2017, 6:00 pm. Guests will be the Iranian author Massumeh Ziai, who lives in Germany, and the translator and SLUB volunteer Lotfali Semino. They will present their short prose and poetry and explain the intercultural context in a discussion with the audience. In the process, the guests will explain how they integrate taboos and border crossings into their work and how they deal with the challenge of transcribing unwritten laws from their cultures.

The conference will conclude on 22 June 2017 with the workshop "Coming to Germany. How Refugees Perceive Germany" with Firas Alshater. From 8:00 pm, the filmmaker and YouTube star will present his work. He will show various video clips in which he uses an artistic, humorous approach to initiate transcultural dialogue and address social stereotypes in a disarmingly funny way. Firas Alshater fled from Syria to Berlin and reports on his very personal moments of arriving in Germany in his videos and in his book "Ich komm auf Deutschland zu". Together with the guests, he wants to discuss the challenges and potentials of multicultural coexistence.

Taboos, the so-called unwritten laws of living together, exist in every community. Without taboos, no society would function. Taboos are acquired through socialisation and have the important function of securing identity. Breaking taboos is correspondingly threatening to the identity of groups and cultures. At the same time, however, they are also taboo breaks that enable new development and initiate processes of social self-understanding. The situation is similar with transgressions: Transgressions in the form of verbal assaults, hate speeches and insults of all kinds can, on the one hand, fundamentally inhibit integration processes and reveal disintegration. On the other hand, they can also provoke counter-reactions that bring about processes of understanding and communication. Against this background, taboo and transgression are highly relevant in the context of integration processes, both in their protective function and in the need to overcome them so that social processes can take place.

The international conference is funded by the ZUK funding programme for the implementation of the TU Dresden's internationalisation strategy: „TU Dresden – Mit der Welt verbunden“.

Information on the programme: www.tu-dresden.de/zfi/tabooandtransgression
The conference will be held in English.

Organiser: Centre for Integration Studies, TU Dresden
Date: 22 June 2017, 9:00 am - 8:00 pm
Venue: Lecture Hall of the Saxon State Library, State and University Library (SLUB), Zellescher Weg 18, 01069 Dresden, 1st floor.

The accompanying programme will be held in German. Admission is free of charge. For the author reading "Asseman, kippe Abr - Der Himmel, voller Wolken" on 21 June, please register. For the workshop „Ich komm auf Deutschland zu. Wie Geflüchtete Deutschland wahrnehmen“ on 22 June, all interested parties are cordially invited.