Diaspora and exile are fundamental metaphors in the modern Kabbalistic cosmology. Historically, the metaphors point to the centrality of migration within the Jewish communities in which 
the Kabbalistic tradition developed, and in Jewish collective memory. On a symbolic level, diaspora and exile came to refer to the Jewish spiritual condition, as temporarily separated from the Creator. The Kabbalah Learning Centre, based in Los Angeles and with centres in major cities around the world, has opened this metaphor up to include humanity as a whole, regardless of religion and ethnicity. The human souls are separated from the Creator by necessity and by choice, in a process to learn to become creators and to deserve the divine blessings. However, while the soul longs for its return to its divine source, the body and the ego are firmly grounded in the illusionary comfort of the diaspora condition. The challenge of humanity, individually and collectively, is hence to return from exile through a personal transformation of consciousness. Based on ethnographic data from the Buenos Aires Kabbalah Centre, I will explore the meanings of diaspora as metaphor for the modern human condition, and the idea of continuous transformation as a key to predictability in a chaotic world.
Hanna Skartveit is a PhD Fellow at IMER/UiB and Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen. Her present project deals with notions of consciousness, knowledge and urban life management in the Kabbalah Centre.
SLAVERY, RESISTANCE AND THE LEGACY OF WANANKHUCHA: ADAPTATION AND THE CONTSTRUCTION OF SOMALI BANTU IDENTITIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
Recent theoretical and empirical studies on immigrant adjustment have shown 
how social, psychological and cultural factors in the pre-migration stage of migration can potentially influence the post-migration adaptation of immigrants. Based on ethnographic research I conducted in the United States, I argue that social history – seen through the lens and cyclical calendar of slavery, brutal oppression and stigmatization – is a significant pre-migration facilitator in the post-migration adaptation of Somali Bantu refugees. I discuss how Somali Bantu refugees use narratives from the past and identity discourses as resources in adjusting to the new challenges they face as immigrants and in constructing new identities. I contemplate the relevance for post-migration adaptation of the gendered narratives told of Wanankhucha, the legendary 19th century female leader, who reportedly conducted a well-orchestrated escape and led her fellow slaves from bondage on Somali plantations to freedom in the Jubba Valley. My point of departure is to show how history and social structure occur at the local, individual level to produce individual modes of adaptation, of resisting domination and defying hierarchies – whether real or imagined. I also show how young Somali Bantus merge the past and the present to usher in new identities and new gender roles within the Somali Bantu community, and to create, simultaneously, new affinities and antagonisms with hosts and other ethnic minorities.
Gaudencia Mutema is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research, (SKOK), at the University of Bergen in Norway. She specializes on gender and migration. Her most recent publication deals with religion in the new African diaspora in Europe and the United States and the gendered impications of being African in the age of transnational migration. Her other research interests include poverty, minority children and education, as well as genocide and ethnic conflict. As part of her multi-sited study, “Migration, Gender and Education: Somali Children in the Diaspora,” Mutema was a Visiting Scholar in 2009 at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
When viewed from the field of education, we encounter a Europe securely embedded in a transnational project, manifesting itself as cosmopolitan, outwardly open and tolerant. Viewed from the field of migration, we observe a Europe that appears uncomfortable with its own diversity, especially with its immigrant diversity, as evidenced by recurrent public and policy debates, and adversarial public opinion. My talk will address this paradox by discussing findings from an ongoing project Reconceptualizing “Good Citizen” and “Good Society”: A Longitudinal and Comparative Analysis of European and East Asian Curricula and Textbooks (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK and the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong).
Yasemin Soysal: Before arriving in Europe and the University of Essex, Yasemin Soysal has studied and worked in the US. Soysal has published extensively on the historical development and contemporary reconfigurations of the nation-state and citizenship in Europe; cultural and political implications of international migrations; and international discourses and regimes of human rights. She has held several fellowships and guest professorships, including Wissenschaftskolleg, National Endowment of Humanities, National Academy of Education, German Marshall Fund, Max Planck Institute, European University Institute, Juan March Institute, and Hitotsubashi University. Soysal is past president of the European Sociological Association.
Hijab: Krav, plikt eller rettighet? Samtale om muslimske kvinners klesplagg
Sigrun Åsebø (Kunsthistoriker, UiB)
Christine M. Jacobsen (Sosialantropolog, UiB/Uni Rokkansenteret)
Marianne Bøe (Religionsviter, SKOK)
Fatma Suslu (Forfatter i boken Utilslørt: Muslimske råtekster)
Sølva Nabila Saxelin (Hijab-brigaden)
Møteleder: Ellen Mortensen (Litteraturviter, SKOK)
I samarbeid med SKOK og Festspillene.
Tidspunkt: 31. mai, 17.30-19.00
Sted: Logen Bar, Øvre Ole Bulls plass 6
Partisan Influence on Immigration: The Case of Norway.
Tme: Friday 20. August at 13.15
Venue: Uni Rokkansenteret, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6. etg (5th Floor)
Balancing the borders: Irregular migrants as the excommunicated of the Norwegian welfare state
Cecilie Øien (Fafo – Institute for Applied International Studies)
The living conditions of irregular migrants in Norway are to a large degree characterized by them being a marginalized group. While they have certain rights in regard to welfare, their access to welfare benefits is very restricted as is their access to the formal labour market. While it is clear that these migrants have limited rights in Norway, I will discuss that an important challenge within this field is in fact the relationship between legal rights, institutional practices and the benefits migrants have access to. The paper is based on a qualitative study I undertook with colleagues at Fafo in 2010-11 for the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, looking at the living conditions and experiences of rejected asylum seekers. I argue that policy related to irregular migrants, and more generally immigration, are defined and implemented according to contemporary perceptions of Norway as an imagined community. The mainstream political expectation is that rejected asylum seekers are themselves responsible for leaving the country. Irregular migrants are thus particularly interesting to understand Norwegian citizenship because they represent the opposite of what is defined in public discourse as being a responsible citizen. Apparently irregular migrants exclude themselves from this imagined community by not qualifying for asylum and by remaining when they “should” leave. By staying they thus not only break the law, but also the prevailing moral contract of what it means to deserving recipient of welfare as a common good to which all citizens are expected to contribute.
Cecilie Øien is research coordinator at Fafo. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester, and her research areas include migration, gender, child migration, transnational families and visual anthropology.
Time: 2 September, 13.15-15.00
Venue: Uni Rokkansenteret, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6. etg (5th Floor)
migrants and objects: material practices of being and belonging in transnational social fields
Maja Povrzanović Frykman (Malmö University)
As migrants engage in a number of material practices that have little to do with their ethnicity and national origin, more attention should be devoted to what people actually do in order to maintain vital connections that constitute transnational social fields. These connections are facilitated by objects and engage the traffic of objects that migrants carry, send, receive, use or struggle with. Instead of a primary focus on discourses of identity and belonging, practices and lived experiences involving objects through which migrants accomplish incorporation in different locations can and should motivate research. This paper proposes a shift of focus from material representations of social relations to the very materiality of objects in transnational contexts of migration. It presents the vantage points of a project financed by The Swedish Research Council in 2011-13.
Maja Povrzanović Frykman is Associate Professor at the Malmö University. She holds a PhD in Enthnology from the University of Zagreb, and currently lectures at the Peace and Conflict Studies Programme at the Department of Global Political Studies in Malmö. Her reasearch interests include the semantics of diaspora and transnationalism, labour- and refugee-migration from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, exile narratives, and war-related identification processes.
Time: 23 September, 13.15-15.00
Venue: Uni Rokkansenteret, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6. etg (5th Floor)
See webpage for more information
The University of Bergen, through its Department of Sociology and IMER/UiB, is organizing a joint conference and PhD course around the theme of First Generation Nationals September 27-30, 2010. This event, focussed on “First Generation Nationals,” will attempt to elucidate several issues of major importance with respect to understanding the diversity of our societies, and many of these are also of significant political importance. A fuller presentation of the conference theme is presented here.
The conference will draw together researchers and scholars from across the Nordic countries and beyond. For PhD students within the humanities and social sciences, the course component of the conference will be constituted by workshop sessions dedicated to different themes. Participating PhD students that after submitting a post-conference paper get their work accepted, will be awarded 9 credits.
The conference programme with confirmed speakers, schedule and conference sessions is found here.
Convenors for the conference and the PhD workshops are:
Mette Andersson, Dept. of Sociology, University of Bergen (contact person regarding the academic programme)
Yngve Lithman, Dept. of Sociology, University of Bergen
For queries of a more practical and administrative nature, please contact the administrative co-ordinator of IMER at imer@uib.no .
IMER Bergen together with the Dept. of Sociology is organizing the PhD Course.