IMER NEWSLETTER NR. 5/2007

IMER NEWSLETTER

Thursday, 24 May 2007

Newsletter Nr. 5 / 2007

Content:

  • (Imer /Unifob Global) The 14 Nordic Migration Researchers Conference
  • IMER/Bergen ’Exploring Diversity’-seminar: Beverley Skeggs, 04/06
  • Call for papers: Conceptions of Islam-PhD Course, Bergen 27-30/08
  • 1st call for papers: 4th ETMU Days, “Nordic Migrations: Past and Present”
  • PRIO: PhD Course On Remittances and Livelihood, Oslo
  • Call for papers – “Points of Passage”. Hamburg, September 2008
  • RBUP: Kvalifiseringsstipend: Minoritetsforskning om barn og unges oppvekst og psykiske helse
  • NAKMI: Søker unge bidragsytere til faglig møteplass for europeisk minoritetsforskning
  • Publications

(Imer/Unifob Global) Updated call:

The 14 Nordic Migration Researchers Conference

“Borders and Boundaries”

Time: 14-16 November 2007
Place: Bergen, Norway

Call for abstracts and workshop proposals

The 14th Nordic Migration Researcher Conference will be hosted by IMER/Unifob Global at the University of Bergen. The theme for the Nordic Migration Researcher Conference points to issues of sovereignty, demarcation, distinction, exclusion and discrimination, but also to issues of transience, communication across distinction, and acceptance. Aspects of ‘the global turn’ and the Europeanization of Europe, not least as manifest in migration and migrant populations, have brought border and boundary issues to the forefront not only in social science and humanities scholarship, but also placed them with exceptional prominence on the political agenda.

The conference will be organized in plenaries, subplenaries, and workshops.
For each of the three days, the plenaries will focus around a specific topic. The following topics have been defined:

Transnationalism and the relevance of borders

Specifically, the relevance of state/European borders in our attempts to understand migratory movements and migrant population ‘integration’. What reshapings of the sovereignty regimes do we see, and why? Do we see a development towards a sociology of mobility? Or do we see a re-nationalization within Europe? Borders, boundaries and identity construction are crucial issues here.

Speakers:
*Jonathon Moses, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
*John Urry, Lancaster University, UK

Mobility and gender

Increasingly, there has been a stronger and much needed focus on gender within studies in international migration and ethnic relations. This plenary will deal with, and tie together, some ways in which gender constructions are tied to imaginaries of community, and gendered distinctions in agency and the quality of life.

Speakers:
*Uli Linke, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
*Laura Augustin, University of Liverpool, UK
*Anja Bredal, Institute for Social Research, Norway

Globalizing idioms and human rights

Increasingly, globalizing and essentializing idioms, especially religious and ethnic ones, have been seen as major impediments to reasoned resolutions to conflicts and controversies. These idioms have been largely contrasted with human rights perspectives. The plenary will explore these issues, with particular attention also to the essentializing dimensions in the human rights discourses.

Speakers:
*Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania, USA
*Ulrich Beck, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK (invited)
*Bruce Kapferer, University of Bergen, Norway

The Organizers welcome proposals for sub-plenaries and workshops. The sub-plenaries will generally be short lectures, intended to be of interest to a set of workshops. Proposals to arrange workshops are welcome. In addition, the organisers will arrange workshops so that all participants who want to give workshop contributions will have an opportunity to do so.

Submission of workshop proposals and subplenaries : 15 June
Submission of abstracts: 1 September
Submission of paper: Open: 1 June – Close: 1 October

Abstracts will only be accepted through online submission.

Workshop proposals can be directed to coordinator.imer@uib.no

For questions about the academic program contact Knut Hidle or Yngve Lithman

For general queries, comments or proposals please contact Kjersti Skjervheim

For more information please visit the conference web page

Imer/Unifob Global(Bergen)- Exploring Diversity Seminars:

Beverley Skeggs 04/06

Time: Monday, 4th June. 12.00-14.00
Place: Stein Rokkans Hus, Unifob Global, 5th floor, Seminarroom

“New Moral Economies on Reality TV”

Drawing on research from the ESRC project ‘The Making of Class and Self through Televised Ethical Scenarios’ Skeggs examine the increased opening out of subjects through Reality Television, of how the evaluation of practices (emoting, performing, speaking, telling) establishes value in the person, displays embodied morality, and divides people into categories of good and bad. She explore how this opening out of intimacy is paralleled by other structures (such as law and social policy) by which power is re-organised to deal with social changes (such as increased divorce, increased management of dispersed family, increased infidelity) and how order is maintained through the opening out of personhood and its reorganisation across a range of site, of which Reality TV is the least subtle and most visual, but importantly engages the audience in the re-organisation and attribution of value.

The process of opening out subjects is not just a matter of governance but produces economies of affect and actual economic profit based upon the exchange value of intimacy and emotion, made visible through showing, telling and dramatisation on TV.

Beverley Skeggs is professor of sociology at Goldsmiths University of London, UK. Skeggs is interested in the relationship between the most intimate and the most structural, between who we think we are, and global capitalism and the processes by which we become (the doing of being). Her book Class, Self, Culture (London: Routledge 2004) explores these interests by examining how class is produced across a range of sites. The central concern of Skeggs is with power, with who has value, with who is seen to be worthy and unworthy and with how groups are positioned and position themselves in relation to the social categories available to them. More information

Imer/UiB’s homepages

Call for papers:

“Conceptions of Islam” PhD course, Bergen

Time: 27-30 August 2007
Place: University of Bergen, Norway

One of the most important as well as contested issues in today’s societies is how to relate to, and conceive of, Islam. Rejecting an essentialist conception of Islam as a “given”, the need is still there to define parameters for a reasonable understanding of what “Islam” may mean, in particular in a world of changing social relations and increasing globalization of discourses, interacting with local conditions and conceptions, both “there” in the Muslim world and “here” in the West.
This seminar/Ph.D. course will take up various facets of how Islam is understood to try to delineate ways of conceiving Muslim experiences as well as modern understandings of what it means to be“Muslim”. The course will take up two main themes, Islam and Feminism, and Interpretations of Islam today. The two are interlinked, and several of the speakers will be able to discuss both themes, but still will each have a special focus of its own.

The course is open to researchers and Ph.D. students. It will consist of lectures by a number of invited scholars. In addition to the invited lectures, students will be expected to present papers in workshops.

The Ph.D course will give 10 ECTS credits.

Invited speakers:
*Ziba Mir-Hosseini, SOAS, London
*Khaled Abou El Fadl, UCLA
*Nacira Guenif-Souilamas, Université Paris-XIII – GREC
*Schirin Amir-Moazmi, Berlin and Frankfurt/Oder
*Maleiha Malik, King’s College, London
*Salwa Ismail, University of Exeter
*Sarah Bracke, Universiteit Utrecht
*Christine Jacobsen, University of Bergen

Registration deadline: June 15th 2007
Deadline for submitting papers: June 25th 2007

More information and detailed program

Organizers:
*Ph. D. School for Middle Eastern Studies/Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Bergen
*Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK), University of Bergen
*IMER/UiB, International Migration & Ethnic Relations Research Unit, University of Bergen
*Ph. D. Program for Asian and African Studies/Dept of Cultural and Oriental Studies, University of Oslo
*Dept of Archaeology and Religious Studies, Norwegian Technical University in Trondheim

1st Call for Papers:

Nordic Migrations: Past & Present, 4th ETMU Days

Time: 26-27 October 2007
Place: Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

The theme of the fourth annual ETMU Days is Nordic Migrations from historical and contemporary perspectives. The theme can be approached from following directions: ethnicity, international mobility, multiculturalism, integration, indigenous and national minorities, minority rights, citizenship, national-ism, racism, refugees, education, upbringing and comparable topics.

The keynote speakers at the conference are Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen (University of Oslo), Professor Charles Westin (University of Stockholm), Dr Diana Mulinari (University of Lund), Dr Ali Najib (University of Uppsala), Dr Garbi Schmidt (Danish National Institute of Social Research), Professor Max Engman (Åbo Akademi University) and Professor Martin Scheinin (Åbo Akademi University).

The preferred language of the conference is English. Presentations are also possible in Finnish and Swedish.

Several workshops dealing with the above mentioned themes will be held at the conference. Researchers, research groups and students of the field may suggest abstracts for these workshops. The length of the paper abstract is ca. 200 words and the proposals can be sent to either directly to the session organizers or to the conference organisers. The abstract should also include the name of the participant, contact information, organisation and the name of the workshop, if known. The organisers reserve themselves the right to move papers between sessions. Suggestions should also specify the language of the paper to be used and are to be submitted by 15th September 2007.

Workshops:

  • Citizenship and civic culture
  • Cultural policy and cultural diversity
  • Family, gender and generations: How migration reconfigures intimate relations?
  • Housing, cities and ethnic minorities
  • Living, working and studying in lingua francae in the Nordic countries: the case of migrants
  • Migrant labour in rural areas
  • Migration and Ethnicity in Nordic History
  • Moving beyond nations – anthropological perspectives on migration and transnationalism
  • Position of immigrants in the labour market
  • Postcolonial Feminist Perspectives on the Nordic Countries
  • Refugees, transnationalism and diaspora
  • Religion, migration and diaspora

For more information..

PRIO:

PhD Course on Remittances and Transnational Livelihoods

Time: 31 October – 3 November 2007
Place: Oslo, Norway

The International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) and the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo are co-organizing a PhD course on migrant remittances and transnational livelihoods. Participants will have the opportunity of focused training and networking with fellow PhD candidates and experts in the field. Confirmed speakers include Khalid Koser, Valentina Mazzucato, Anna Lindley, Cindy Horst and Jørgen Carling.

Application deadline: 15 June.

For more information..

Call for papers:

Points of Passage, Hamburg, September 2008

  • Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Juden, Hamburg
  • Jochen Oltmer, Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS), Universität Osnabrück
  • Christhard Hoffmann, Historisk Institutt, Universitetet i Bergen
  • Tobias Brinkmann, Parkes Institute, University of Southampton
Time: 13-15 September 2008
Place: Hamburg, Germany

The conference organizers welcome proposals from scholars currently researching the following topics:

  • causes of the Jewish mass migration
  • infrastructure of the migration (paths, mode of transport, steamship lines)
  • hygiene and health
  • the perspective of individual migrants
  • return migration
  • state policies and (trans-) migration
  • Jewish organizations (migrants and/or established Jews in the West)
  • public perception of transmigrants

Proposals (500 Words + short CV) can be directed here

Deadline: 15 June 2007

A publication of the conference papers is planned. The conference language is English.

RBUP:

Kvalifiseringsstipend: Minoritetsforskning om barn og unges oppvekst og psykiske helse

Forskningsavdelingen ved Regionsenter for barn og unges psykiske helse (RBUP) i Helseregion Øst og Sør, utlyser herved et fire måneders kvalifiseringsstipend for å bidra til utvikling av et doktorgradsprosjekt. Stipendet er rettet inn mot forskning om barn og unge med minoritetsbakgrunn og deres oppvekstsituasjon. Kvalifiseringsstipendet kan søkes av personer med forskjellige profesjons- og fagbakgrunner. Kandidaten skal delta i et pågående prosjekt der fokuset er hvordan barn og unge med minoritetsbakgrunn skaper mening og sammenheng i forhold til risiko og beskyttelse under oppveksten.

Nærmere informasjon kan fås ved forsker og prosjektleder Ketil Eide (Ketil.Eide@r-bup.no) på telefon 22586045 eller seksjonsleder
Mette Ystgaard (Mette.Ystgaard@r-bup.no) på telefon 22586029.

Søknadsfrist: 8. juni 2007

For mer informasjon..

NAKMI

Søker unge bidragsytere til faglig møteplass for europeisk minoritetsforskning

Nasjonal kompetanseenhet for minoritetshelse (NAKMI) er f.o.m. 2007 involvert i flere europeiske nettverkssamarbeid som skal formidle norsk kunnskap og erfaringer til utenlandske kolleger innen forskning og klinisk utvikling.

Vi tar imot henvendelser fra studenter på masternivå og stipendiater somønsker å forberede sin oppgaveskriving samtidig som de kan bidra til vårt fagfelt: Fysisk og psykisk helse og omsorg blant migranter – flyktninger, asylsøkere, innvandrere, arbeidsmigranter, udokumenterte innvandrere osv.

Hvis du kunne tenke deg å skrive en review eller bibliografi over relevant litteratur på et avgrenset område av et prosjekt/forskningsarbeid du er involvert i, eller innen det minoritetshelsefaglige feltet generelt.
Oversikten avgrenses i første rekke til hva som er produsert i Norge. Temaer kan gjerne være innsnevret, for eksempel ‘livsstilsendringer og tannhelse blant innvandrerbarn’, ‘psykisk helse blant helsearbeidere med minoritetsbakgrunn’, ‘arbeidslivshelse blant migranter/minoriteter’, ‘møter mellom majoritetspasienter og minoritetspersonale i eldreomsorgen’ osv.

NAKMI tilbyr godtgjørelse etter avtale.

For mer informasjon..

Henvendelser kan rettes til:

Eirik Dahl Viggen
eirik.viggen@nakmi.no
Tlf. 23 01 60 64

Publications

(2007)“Gendering citizenship in Western Europe: New challenges for citizenship research in a cross-national context”, Policy Press, UK

Contributors: Ruth Lister, Fiona Williams, Anneli Anttonen, Jet Bussemaker, Ute Gerhard, Jacqueline Heinen, Stina Johansson, Arnlaug Leira, Birte Siim, Constanza Tobio and Anna Gavanas. For more information..

Veit Bader (2007)“Secularism or Democracy? Associational Governance of Religious Diversity”, IMISCOE-AUP Series. For more information..

R. Bauböck, B. Perchinig and W. Sievers(eds.)(2007)“Citizenship policies in the New Europe”, IMISCOE-AUP Series. For more information..

Jandl, Michael (Ed)(2007).”Innovative Concepts for Alternative Migration Policies. Ten Innovative Approaches to the Challenges of Migration in the 21st Century”, IMISCOE-AUP Series. For more information..

Van Liempt, Ilse (2007) “Inside Perspectives on the Process of Human smuggling”, IMISCOE Policy Brief. For more information..