Tag: migration

CFP Digital Diasporas: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (UK)

ConferencesCall for Papers: Digital Diasporas: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 6 and 7 June 2019, University of London, UK. Deadline: 1 December 2018.

Since Appadurai wrote on the intertwined phenomena of electronic media and migration as disruptive and defining features of modern subjectivity (1996), the relationship between digital technologies and diasporic communities has emerged as a critical area of study across a number of disciplines. However, such research risks remaining isolated within disciplinary silos, often despite the similar processes, practices and materials studied. This conference aims to inspire greater dialogue across disciplinary boundaries in order to develop a richer understanding of the role of the digital in creating and sustaining diasporic connections and communities, and of how diasporic groups and individuals transform and shape digital tools and technologies for their own creative and strategic purposes.

Organizers especially welcome research which pays attention to the linguistic and cultural dimensions of digital technologies and media. This is, however, not restricted to any specific geographical area, language or type of community. Equally, the digital is intended to encompass the fullest range of digital practices, materials and technologies, while the conference aims to include methodological and analytical approaches ranging across, for example, ethnographic, cultural studies and computational approaches.

Finding Your Way: COMPAS Photo Competition 2018

Applied ICDThe Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society (COMPAS) is a Research Centre within the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. They hold photo competitions each year. For this year’s competition theme, Finding your Way, they are looking for photos and illustrations exploring the experiences and strategies of migrants finding their way in unfamiliar territory. Images can be anything from a symbolic illustration of the changing attitudes towards migration, to a personal depiction of moving to a new place. Winning entries will be of high quality, good composition and contain strong imagery. Enter online by 5pm, Friday 26 October 2018.

Cities of Migration

Applied ICDCities of Migration showcases good ideas in immigrant integration and promotes innovative practices that create inclusion and urban prosperity. They focus on ideas that are practical, innovative, successful, and transferable. They summarize good ideas in immigration, building inclusive cities, prepare a monthly summary of Conversations in Integration,  and host a monthly webinar called Learning Exchange – the next one is titled In the Classroom and Beyond: Supporting Refugee Students. They’ve also just prepared a diagnostic tool called Test my City, to make generalizations come alive by showing how they apply to any specific city.

Migration Policy Institute Job Ad: International Program (USA)

Job adsThe Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank dedicated to the study of U.S. and international migration policies, seeks an exceptional Research Assistant to join its International Program in Washington, DC. Deadline: June 15, 2018.

MPI’s International Program conducts research and analysis on challenges facing local, national, and supranational governments, covering topics such as refugee protection and integration, skills and mobility, border management, social cohesion in an age of diversity, and the governance of migration. The research assistant’s primary responsibilities will be to assist with qualitative and quantitative research and provide programmatic support in several areas of MPI’s work. Salary and title will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

U Liege Postdoc and PHD Scholarships (Belgium)

PostdocsTwo PhD Scholarships and One Postdoctoral Scholarship on Migrants’ Social Protection Strategies, Université de Liège (Belgium), Faculty of Social Sciences (FaSS), Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM). Deadline: June 4, 2018.

Applications are invited for scholarships to work at doctoral and post-doctoral level as part of the Migration, Transnationalism and Social Protection in (post-)crisis Europe project (MiTSoPro).

  1. Two doctoral positions: full-time, fixed-term position available for 3 years (with possible extension)

  2. One post-doctoral position: full-time, fixed-term position available for 3 years

Using Technology to Aid Migration: MigApp

Applied ICDWith 250 million international migrants, and 750 million internal migrants, 1 in 7 people in the world now is a migrant (MigApp Data Sheet, 2017). The International Organization for Migration (IOM, the UN migration agency) has developed MigApp to provide a platform for migrants to use in sharing their experiences, as well as to access verified and accurate information. Migrants also gain a translation tool to use with healthcare professionals and a low-cost way to transfer money (necessary because international migrants from developing countries send home over USD$600 billion annually.). Governments gain a platform to use in directly informing migrants of policies, such as visa regulations. IOM gains a tool to get information about their programs directly to migrants, learn what information is most useful, and what else is needed by the population they serve.

IOM Definition of “Migrant”:  “IOM defines a migrant as any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of (1) the person’s legal status; (2) whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary; (3) what the causes for the movement are; or (4) what the length of the stay is. IOM concerns itself with migrants and migration‐related issues and, in agreement with relevant States, with migrants who are in need of international migration services.”

CFP Oxford Migration Conference (UK)

ConferencesCall for Papers | Oxford Migration Conference: Crossing borders / Crossing disciplines: Rethinking Inclusion, Exclusion, and Human Mobility. 17–18 May 2018, Worcester College, Oxford University, UK. Deadline: 20 April 2018.

Human mobility is accompanied by processes of inclusion and exclusion. Whether in large-scale economic processes or face-to-face encounters, navigating ethnic, cultural, religious, economic, or linguistic differences resulting from migration and mobility can be challenging for states, societies, and individuals alike.

What are the various scales and moments at which processes of inclusion and exclusion come to the fore? Who includes and who excludes? Where do processes of inclusion and exclusion take place? What effects do they have at the individual, regional, national or international levels?

This conference aims to generate new inter- and multi-disciplinary insights and ideas on the theme of inclusion/exclusion. We invite abstracts from researchers at all academic levels addressing processes of inclusion/exclusion in relation to human migration and mobility from all disciplinary perspectives.

Practitioners and policy-makers are welcome to submit their ideas, and contributions that feature applied or practical collaboration with groups or individuals outside of universities are particularly invited.

U Lugano Studentship: Migration, Diversity & Intercultural Communication (Switzerland)

FellowshipsUniversità della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland. Ph.D. Student and Research Assistant. Deadline: June 30, 2018; open until filled.

Applications invited for a fully funded, full time, 3-year doctoral position in migration, diversity and intercultural communication. The applicant will work on a project fully funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The candidate will join the research team of Prof. Jolanta Drzewiecka at the Institute for Public Communication.

The project advances a novel approach to migrant belonging by exploring how identity capital and emotions mediate Eritrean settled refugee’ identities and belonging in Switzerland. We will extend the understanding of belonging as a discursively, materially and emotionally habituated practice. The project connects multidimensional notions of capital and affect to migrant belonging within a material-affective-discursive approach. It adopts a transnational perspective on Eritreans settled in Switzerland to elucidate how regional, ethnic, migration generation, gender and class distinctions shape belonging. It employs ethnographic methodology.

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KC16 Migration Translated into Greek

Key Concepts in ICDContinuing translations of Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, today I am posting KC#16: Migration, which Saskia Witteborn wrote for publication in English in 2014, and which Anastasia Karakitsou has now translated into Greek. As always, all Key Concepts are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download. Lists of Key Concepts organized chronologically by publication date and number, alphabetically by concept, and by languages into which they have been translated, are available, as is a page of acknowledgments with the names of all authors, translators, and reviewers.

KC16 Migration_GreekWitteborn, S. (2018). Migration [Greek]. (A. Karakitsou, trans). Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 16. Available from:
https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/kc16-migration_greek1.pdf

If you are interested in translating one of the Key Concepts, please contact me for approval first because dozens are currently in process. As always, if there is a concept you think should be written up as one of the Key Concepts, whether in English or any other language, propose it. If you are new to CID, please provide a brief resume. This opportunity is open to masters students and above, on the assumption that some familiarity with academic conventions generally, and discussion of intercultural dialogue specifically, are useful.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

CFP Language & Borders Conference (UK)

ConferencesLANGUAGE AND BORDERS: RETHINKING MOBILITY, MIGRATION AND SPACE, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL (UK) 26 MARCH – 27 MARCH 2018
Deadline for abstracts: 14 November 2017

The widespread movement of people and their linguistic repertoires has contributed to growing pressure on the model of the nation-state and related notions of linguistically and culturally homogeneous societies. Supposed homogeneity of communities is contingent on the notion of the border as a device of containment. However, in light of increased population movement, recent multidisciplinary approaches seek to capture the complex qualities of the border as both a locus of mobility (a line to be crossed – a bridge) and a site of enclosure (an untraversable barrier – a wall). So what are borders, how are they constructed and how do they impact our lived experience? Additionally, how can sociolinguistic and cognate research enhance our understanding of the interface between language and borders?

In this context, it has become increasingly urgent to reconsider how ‘migration’ is theoretically conceptualized, especially because ‘migration’ itself has become a salient object of contemporary discourse. This objectification and frequent vilification of migration potentially casts a shadow on the complex and diverse forms of (im)mobility that social actors experience, be it in relation to their own (im)mobility or that of others. Discussion of the roles of borders, mobility and migration in sociolinguistic research encourages us to reflect on the broader concept of space, and on its role in the formation and perpetuation of language ideologies. At this conference, we aim to address a number of questions, including:

– What constitutes a border for sociolinguistic researchers? What linguistic practices do borderlanders engage in?
– As sociolinguists, what can we learn from multidisciplinary approaches to border studies? What insights can be drawn from advances in geography, sociology, history, anthropology, politics and cultural studies?
– How do different sociolinguistic methodological frameworks (qualitative, quantitative, mixed) address borderland scenarios.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Brigitta Busch (University of Vienna), Carmen Llamas (University of York), Clare Mar-Molinero (University of Southampton).

This conference invites contributions from researchers in a range of disciplinary backgrounds, whose work focuses on the role of language in relation to borders, mobility, migration, and/or space. The conference has been generously supported by the British Academy’s ’Tackling the UK’s International Challenges’ initiative, as part of an ongoing project by Dr James Hawkey (Bristol) and Dr Kristine Horner (Sheffield).

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