Tag: Migration

The Disaster Lab

The Disaster Lab is a historical research project headed by CNHH member Laura Madokoro. The project explores the history of disasters and interrogates the role of migration and citizenship in how state and civil society actors have responded in times of strife.

Building on the Canadian Disaster Database maintained by Public Safety Canada, this project explores how disasters have been perceived, defined and addressed historically by the federal government in Canada while also considering the lived experience of disasters through the eyes of the communities, humanitarians, civil society actors and rescuers who shaped the short and long-term responses to tragedy.

Inspired by very real climate change crisis confronting our global community, and the prospect of hundreds of thousands of environmental refugees in the coming years, this project seeks to learn and better understand historic responses to disasters at the local, provincial, federal and global levels.

Supported by an Early Researcher Award from the Government of Ontario (2021 – 2026), this project invites a dialogue among scholars and communities interested in understanding the impact of disasters historically and how we might reflect upon our current and future circumstances.

The project will be launching soon. Details will soon be on the project’s official website.

CfP: The 26th Canadian Ethnic Studies Association (CESA) Biennial Conference, 16-17 October 2020

Immigration Politics, Refugee Crises, and Ethnic Dynamics in the Turbulent 2010s: Canada and Beyond.

Deadline EXTENDED: 24 February 2020.

The Canadian Ethnic Studies Association (CESA) invites panel and/or paper proposals for its upcoming 26th conference on the theme of “Immigration Politics, Refugee Crises, and Ethnic Dynamics in the Turbulent 2010s: Canada and Beyond”. The 2010s was a decade in which the issues of immigration policy, border security, rising ethnic tensions, new and ongoing regional and national political conflicts, multiple displacements and escalating refugee crises dominated the news in many different countries – from the United States and Canada in North America to the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece in Europe, and to China, Australia, Myanmar, and New Zealand in East Asia and Oceania. This dominance was so pronounced that the immigration/ethnic issues became one of the paramount forces in determining the political directions and election results in different countries; they also led to the rise of a new right-wing populist discourse as well as new and old uncertainties about the meaning and possibility of citizenship, identity / sense of belonging, freedom, human rights, and justice. Meanwhile, despite the conservative and exclusionary politics in various western countries, citizens’ groups and solidarity movements have emerged or strengthened existing voices that support inclusion and integration of migrants and refugees. Finally, this decade also witnessed technological advancements, which not only changed state organization, the economy and the social world that we live in, but also shifted the methodological landscape, pushing the research frontier in immigration and ethnic studies.

This conference provides a forum to discuss a wide range of issues related to immigration and ethnic dynamics during this turbulent decade, and to offer perspectives for the future. The participants are invited to address any aspect of this changing landscape, including (but not limited to):

  • The place of Canada in the global migration scene
  • The global impact of Canadian immigration policies and practices
  • The treatment of immigrants and refugees; promises and limitations of Canada’s immigration policy
  • Regional particularisms in immigration policies
  • Multiculturalism: policy, practice, evidence; and benefits, limitations, challenges
  • Ethnic diversity and cultural vitality
  • Implications of the changing global landscape on Canada’s immigration and multiculturalism policies
  • Immigration discourse at a time of rising populism
  • The interplay of international migration trends and ethno-cultural and religious communities in Canada
  • The experiences of particular immigrant and newcomer communities
  • Indigenous populations and relations with immigrants and newcomers
  • Immigration and the smaller cities and rural areas
  • The roles, contributions, and challenges of immigration/settlement agencies
  • Immigrant and refugee youth: health, education and integration issues
  • Immigrant and refugee seniors
  • Migration and gender-based violence
  • Refugees: trauma, survival and integration
  • Big data and big ideas in immigration and ethnic studies

CESA invites theoretical and empirically-based contributions, individual papers and/or fully formed panels, standard papers or presentations in other formats (e.g., posters, roundtables, films), and all the above from a variety of disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives.

The venue for the 26th Canadian Ethnic Studies Association’s conference will be Saint Mary’s University, located in the historic port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a vibrant, urban community of over 400,000 people. Halifax is Atlantic Canada’s major educational centre and home to five universities, with a long history of immigration, settlement and diversity. Saint Mary’s University is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancenstral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq.


Who Should Attend?

In addition to members of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, the conference will be relevant to a wide range of people interested in history, ethnicity, race, immigration and citizenship issues in Canada and internationally. University professors, graduate students, other researchers and teachers; policymakers and civil servants from all levels of government; those who work in various non-governmental organizations, as well as those involved as frontline workers delivering various kinds of social services – all of these will find that this conference offers them worthwhile information, challenging critical perspectives, and an opportunity to network and discuss important issues with people from across the country and from a variety of academic disciplines and institutional perspectives.

Proposals.

Conference organizers welcome proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, posters and video presentations that address any of the related topics. Organizers invite submissions from a variety of perspectives, academic disciplines, and areas of study.The deadline for submission of proposals for papers, sessions, panels, roundtables, and poster presentations is February 15th, 2020 February 24, 2020. The decisions on the submitted proposals will be communicated by March 30th, 2020.

All abstracts should be no longer than 250 words and will be refereed by the CESA Program Committee. Individual conference presentations will normally be 20 minutes in length, and conference sessions will be 90 minutes. Abstracts should be directed electronically to: cesa2020@smu.ca

See the complete CfP, including the French version, here.

CfP: Imperial Legacies of 1919

Contact: imperial1919unt@gmail.com
Conference Date: April 19-20, 2019

CfP Deadline for Papers and Panels: December 31, 2018.

Roundtable Participant Proposal Deadline: January 31, 2019.

Undergraduate Student Poster Competition Proposal Deadline: February 15, 2019.

 

Journalist and author Shrabani Basu will provide a distinguished lecture on Indian soldiers related to her recent work: For King and Another Country (2015). Prior to the conference, she will also host a screening of Victoria and Abdul, a film based on her book of the same name. Historian of the British Empire Dr. Susan Kingsley Kent will provide the keynote address. Her esteemed works include Aftershocks: Politics and Trauma in Britain, 1918-1931 (2009); The Women’s War of 1929: Gender and Violence in Colonial Nigeria (2011) and The Global Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 (2012). Continue reading

Call for Papers: The Stakes of Sanctuary

McGill University, 7-8 March 2019

Patti Tamara Lenard (University of Ottawa) and Laura Madakoro (McGill University)


In recent decades, there has been a great deal of attention given to modern sanctuary practices,
ranging from the sanctuary offered to asylum seekers from Central America in the 1980s to recent
efforts to declare university campuses, cities and states sanctuary spaces. Although much of the
focus has been on contemporary activities in the United States, sanctuary is a global, and deeply
historic phenomenon. Continue reading

Award Announcement: Gunn Award for Best Historical Essay on International Migration in Canada

In their effort to preserve the legacy of Canada’s immigration history and to support continued excellence in research in Canada on international migration, the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC) and the Canadian Immigration Historical Society (CIHS) are jointly offering a $1000 award for a fourth-year or graduate-level reseIMG_1813arch paper on the historical evolution of Canadian immigration policy or a historical analysis of Canadian immigration related to specific places, events, or communities. Continue reading

Sharing Perspectives on Climate Migration: From Narratives, to Language, to Conceptualization

by Jay Ramasubramanyam

“Rains have become so fickle, the days measurably hotter, the droughts more frequent and more fierce, making it impossible to grow enough food on their land” read an article in the New York Times that appeared in late February which elucidated the grounds for mass-migratory patterns across Sub-Saharan Africa (Heat, Hunger and War Force Africans Onto a ‘Road on Fire’). In light of such patterns increasing more than ever in the global south, the role of Carleton University’s Climate Commons, a working group that brings together faculty members and undergraduate and graduate students to discuss climate change issues, becomes all the more prominent within the context of such narratives. An evening of discussion and dialogue on climate change migration on the 1st of March brought together professors, a slam poet and a graduate student to discuss ‘climate refugees’.

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Latest issue of Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees Available Now.

The current issue of Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees has now been published.  This special issue on Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime is one of the results of the workshop hosted at Carleton University in September 2015 with the generous support of Migration and Diaspora Studies.  It is an OpenAccess journal, so you can access and share the special issue through the journal’s Table of Contents or through the provided link.

CARFMS 2016 Student Essay Contest

CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR REFUGEE AND FORCED MIGRATION STUDIES (CARFMS)

2016 STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST

The Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS) seeks to foster an independent community of scholars dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of Canadian refugee and forced migration research. The Association aims to engage students as active members of the Canadian refugee and forced migration research community, and invites students to participate in the sixth annual CARFMS Student Essay Contest. There are two categories: one for graduate and law students; and, one for undergraduate students.

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Call for Papers: Migration/Representation/Stereotypes

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT and CALL FOR PAPERS:

MIGRATION/REPRESENTATION/ STEREOTYPES

 

The omnipresence of stereotypes in the age of global migration is increasingly evident both at the level of governing structures and in everyday practices. Stereotypes, as Patrice Pavis tells us, stem from “preconceived ideas and unverified truisms” (369). In the context of migration, both historically and today, the use of stereotypes to characterize the migrant – whether it be a figure of suffering or a source of danger – can influence, polarize, and even radicalize public opinions and discourses. The influence of social media and political narratives, as well as literature and the arts, can be both productive and dangerous when it comes to our evaluation of a new migrant, refugee, asylum seeker, or exile as a neighbour, business partner, colleague, or friend. This is especially true in a world of increasing global conflicts and terrorism, neoliberal markets, and newly emerging nationalist agendas. This international, interdisciplinary, and bilingual conference aims to address the questions of the (ab)use of stereotypes when it comes to the representation of migration and refugees in various public discourses, both historically, conceptually and practically.

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