Category Archives: Seminar

IMER Webinar 11.06: Migrant Parents’ Experience with Leisure and Outdoor Play in Norway

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.

 

 

 

Time: Thursday 11th of June 2020, 11.00 – 12.00

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Meeting ID: 641 6856 7153

Password: IMER11.06

IMER Webinar 29.05: The Promise of Babette’s Feast: Facilitated Encounters between Locals and Refugees in Norway

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 Geography. 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.

 

 

 

Time: Friday 29th of May 2020, 11.00 – 12.00

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IMER Webinar 28.04: Corona Prevention and Impacts on Syrian Refugees in Jordan

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.

 

 

Time: Tuesday 28th of April 2020, 11.00 – 12.00

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IMER Lunch Seminar 25.02: Aspirations among Women seeking Asylum in Norway: A Longitudinal Perspective from the Asylum Centre and Onwards

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.

Time: Tuesday 25th of February 2020, 12.30 – 13.30

Place: Rosenbergsgaten 39, Seminar room 112, first floor 

PhD Relay – 17.09.2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier this week, IMER organized a PhD relay where PhD candidates from various disciplines and across departments were offered the opportunity to discuss their research and receive feedback from IMER board members. The session aimed at furthering dialogue between senior and junior researchers working on migration.

Participants:

IMER Board Members and Affiliated Researchers

Members from IMER Junior Scholars Network

  • Amany Selim, Department of Sociology, “Political Activism in the Context of Recent Displacement: Exploring Trajectories of Political Engagement among Syrian Activists in Europe. A Case of Two Cities”
  • Anders Rubing, SKOK, “Infrastructures of Resilience and Security”
  • Ann Cathrin Corrales-Øverlid, Department of Foreign Languages, “A Culinary  Quest: Peruvian Women Entrepreneurs in Southern California Negotiating Home and Belonging”
  • Cathrine Talleraas, CMI/PRIO, Institutionalising Transnationalism: The National Welfare System’s Encounter with People who lead Transnational Lives”
  • Kari Hagatun, Department of Education,The Educational Situation for Roma Pupils in Norway: Silenced Narratives on Schooling and Future”
  • Joanna Spyra, Department of Archeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion,“Madness as Resistance: Disciplining Sexual Behavior of Jewish Immigrant Women in Argentina in the Interwar Period”

We are indebted to Kari Anne Drangsland, the PhD representative on IMER board, for her efforts in planning and organising the event.

We are grateful to everyone who could attend and participate!

IMER Lunch Seminar 12.03: Migratory Horizons: Expectations of Migration in Senegal and Beyond

The question of migration is a multifaceted one. It impacts upon individual and social life long before a person’s departure or the crossing of borders. Tuning in with pre- and post-departure perspectives from the African-European border zone, this seminar will argue that migration cannot be understood if addressed as a series of events or movements in the here and now. On the contrary, it must be seen in relation to the experiences and ideas that predate and at the same time reach beyond the temporal settings in which they unfold. For this IMER seminar, Knut Graw from the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa at the Kathlieke Universiteit Leuven will elaborate on this argument in relation to Senegal as a case study.

 Knut Graw (PhD) works at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa (IARA) and the Interculturalism, Minorities and Migration Research Centre (IMMRC) of the University of Leuven and, as associated researcher, at Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin. His current research focuses on the situation of Senegalese migrants in Southern Europe and the cultural dynamics and transfers in the African-European borderzone.

IMER Lunch Seminar 15.01: Crimmigration: Criminal Justice and Border Control

‘Crimmigration’ has become a critical “catch all” concept for legal scholars, criminologists, and sociologists alike. The concept describes the way two previously separate state control spheres – border control and crime control – influence each other and are part of the same control mechanism experiences and developments. This concept, for example, helps understand Trump’s effort to legitimize the tightening of immigration policy. It refers to both the protection of American economy and jobs and the explicit intent to protect American citizens from terrorists, rapists, and gang members. For this IMER lunch seminar, Synnøve Jahnsen from Rokkansenteret will talk about the usefulness of crimmigration as a concept in other settings. She will draw on empirical examples from her research on prostitution and human trafficking, Norwegian labour market crime policies, and the policing of outlaw motorcycle clubs and youth gangs in Australia and Europe. She will also use the opportunity to promote her new co-edited book “Criminal Justice in the Era of Mass Mobility” and highlight some of the methodological challenges faced by researchers in her field.

A light lunch will be served. All welcome!

 Synnøve Jahnsen is a postdoctoral research fellow at Rokkansenteret where she specializes in the sociology of law and criminal justice.

IMER lunch seminar 13.06: Mahr in Norway – the sale of a woman or a legal right?

Our last lunch seminar this semester: Now re-announced with a new date!

Mahr (the Muslim dower) is regarded as obligatory to Muslim marriages. This means that when a Muslim man marries a Muslim woman, he provides her with a certain financial gift. However, this arrangement is controversial. Does Mahr entail the “sale” of a woman in a Muslim marriage? Because of such concerns, marriage rituals that contain mahr are not approved by the Norwegian state, as they are seen as contravening “Norwegian law and general gender equality principles”.

But does mahr merely entail the “sale” of a woman, or can it serve other purposes as well?

In this seminar, the lived experiences of Norway’s regulation of mahr will be examined. Building on a study of the Iranian diaspora in Norway, Marianne Bøe will explore the forms that mahr can take in contemporary Norwegian society. In her study, Bøe has conducted interviews with members of the Iranian diaspora, and has also studied documents relevant for Norway’s marriage ritual regulation. Does the present regulation of mahr contribute to safeguarding gender equality and the rights of women, or does it have other unintended effects?

The seminar takes place at seminar room 112 at Adm. org, Christies gate 17, on Wednesday 13th of June, from 12.30 to 14.00. A light lunch will be served,

All are welcome!

Marianne Bøe is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Archeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion (AHKR) at UiB.

Lunch seminar 16.01: Birthday parties as a test of belonging in Norway

Kicking off a new semester with IMER lunch seminars, our first seminar this year is building on exciting fieldwork from Bergen. Hilde Danielsen from Uni Research Rokkansenteret is giving a presentation about the symbolic value of birthday parties in contemporary Norway.

Danielsen argues that birthday celebrations have become more than a private family matter, and are increasingly seen as a socially charged question in Norwegian society. Many parents with and without migration background, as well as teachers and other actors, claim that birthday parties have the potential to create social inclusion. They are especially concerned that children with migrant background should celebrate and attend. Celebrating birthdays has seemingly become one of the litmus tests of whether an immigrant individual or an immigrant group is integrated into Norwegian society.

Note the place: Lauritz Meltzers hus (SV-bygget), room 212. Time: 16.01, from 12.30 to 14.00.

As usual, a light lunch will be served. All are welcome!

Hilde Danielsen is research professor at Uni Research Rokkansenteret.

Lunch seminar 02.11: Maid in India. Domestic labor conditions in contemporary India

As in many other parts of the world, domestic work in India is performed under precarious conditions. Low wages, long working hours, low status, and the absence of legislation that guarantees fair terms of employment are realities that confront India’s domestic workers on a daily basis. Domestic work is one of the largest sectors of work in urban areas in India. At the same time it is one the most stigmatized and lowest paid occupations. The fact that this work is mainly carried out by women, and also by poor and illiterate migrants from lower caste groups, has contributed to this stigmatization.

In this IMER seminar, Padmaja Barua will present findings from her doctoral research in India. Over a period 10 months, Barua spent time with both domestic workers and their employers, and with a trade union that works with domestic workers in Mumbai. Her aim was to critically explore the relationship between women engaged in paid domestic and their employers, and also the relationship between these women and organizations that seek to advance the empowerment of these women. In this presentation, she will specifically explore how domestic workers respond to the cultural beliefs that seek to sustain their subordination, and the impact that unionization has had in the lives of these women.

The seminar takes place at from 12.30 to 14.00 on Thursday the 2nd of November. Venue: The Department for Comparative Politics, Christies gate 15, seminar room at 2nd floor.

A lunch will be served. Welcome!

Padmaja Barua is a PhD candidate at the HEMIL Center, Faculty of Psychology, UiB.