Calendar

Feb
25
Tue
IMER Lunch Seminar 25.02: Aspirations among Women seeking Asylum in Norway: A Longitudinal Perspective from the Asylum Centre and Onwards @ Seminar room 112, first floor
Feb 25 @ 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Since the refugee reception crisis in 2015, asylum seekers and refugees have often been at the centre of public and scholarly debate. However, the focus has frequently been on the problems they bring about for host countries. Less attention has been placed on asylum seekers’ aspirations, dreams and plans after arrival. Yet these are meaningful to study given that aspirations can have a significant impact on people’s future trajectories and hence, the ways they incorporate into their new homes. Furthermore, desire, despite having a strong agentic nature, is deeply entangled in the social structures and discourses that newcomers are surrounded by.

In this seminar, Zubia Willmann, will be presenting her article in which she explores how the aspirations of women who came to Norway as asylum seekers change over time, the elements that may be involved in such changes as well as how these women go about pursuing their aspirations. She draws on intermittent fieldwork for one and a half years (2017-2019) in which she followed women seeking asylum in Norway, from the stages in which they lived in asylum centres to the early stages of settlement in a Norwegian municipality.

A light lunch will be served! All welcome.

 Zubia Willmann is a currently a PhD candidate at VID Specialized University, Stavanger with a project exploring how women seeking asylum in Norway go about starting their life in their new home. She has an interdisciplinary background, her main fields of interest being migration studies but also gender and religion studies among others. She has been recently a visiting scholar at the Migration and Diversity Centre at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Zubia is also a member of the IMER Junior Scholars Network.

Apr
28
Tue
Corona Prevention and Impacts on Syrian Refugees in Jordan
Apr 28 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Jordan has enacted some of the world’s strongest lockdown and quarantine measures. These measures have been received quite well domestically, but their impact on the country’s most vulnerable refugees is only beginning to be understood.

The majority of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in urban areas in addition to a significant number also residing in camps. As living conditions are linked to the effectiveness of prevention measures, different populations may experience different outcomes.

In this webinar, Sarah Tobin will explore the situation of the Syrian refugees in Jordan, while also examining the political consequences of the pandemic response in the country.

Sarah Tobin is a senior researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute. Her latest research projects examine questions of religious and economic life and identity construction with Syrian refugees in Jordanian camps of Za’atari, Azraq, and Cyber City.

 

 

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May
29
Fri
IMER Webinar 29.05: The Promise of Babette’s Feast: Facilitated Encounters between Locals and Refugees in Norway
May 29 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

There is a deep-rooted cultural belief that encounters between strangers in local settings can bring about social change. Mette Strømsø, a researcher at the Sociology Department UiB, brings this aspect to the forefront in her study of local community initiatives established in the wake of the refugee influx in 2015. Mette will present her co-authored article with Susanne Bygnes whereby they strive to unpack the promise, inherent contradictions and transformative potential of the facilitated encounters in local communities where newcomers settled. The reference to Karen Blixen’s short story Babette’s feast indicate the cultural resonance of the promise in the facilitated encounters between newcomers and permanent residents.

Mette Strømsø is a researcher for IMEX at the department of Sociology, UiB. She holds a PhD in Human. Her research interests fall at the intersection of political geography and social and cultural geography, with a focus on everyday nationhood and especially the reconciliation between nation and diversity.

 

 

 

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Jun
11
Thu
IMER Webinar 11.06: Migrant Parents’ Experience with Leisure and Outdoor Play in Norway
Jun 11 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

In Norway, there is an institutionalized emphasis on the importance of outdoor life and play. This is embedded in public provision for children and in dominant understandings of how families should use leisure time and how children should play. In this seminar, Raquel Herrero-Arias, PhD candidate at the department of Health Promotion, UiB, will discuss her co-authored article (currently under review) on the experiences of Southern European migrant parents with professional advice on family leisure and outdoor play. It focuses on how migrant parents respond to associate discourses of risks in their encounters with kindergarten professionals and community health nurses. Raquel will discuss how migrant parents navigated risk discourse in these encounters in many ways either by contesting, accepting professional intervention, or falsifying compliance.

Raquel Herrero-Arias is a PhD candidate at the department of Health Promotion, UiB. She holds a Master’s Degree in Gender Studies, and an Erasmus Mundus Master in Social Work with Families and Children. Her doctoral project explores the experiences of parenting among Southern European migrant parents in Norway.

 

 

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Meeting ID: 641 6856 7153

Password: IMER11.06