Event organised by: the Centre for Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX) and the Global Race Centre for Equality (GRACE) at the University of Lancashire (UCLan)
Deadline for application submissions: 26 November 2023
This PhD school will revolve around the concepts of migration, intersectionality and inclusivity in relation to race.
‘Migration’, the physical movement of people from one place to another for a short or long period of time, can be a source of opportunities and benefits, but it can also represent a powerful symbol of global inequality. Indeed, with the establishment of modern states and the emergence of a global economic system based on capital accumulation, human mobility has been increasingly regulated through borders, border regimes, immigration policies, and citizenship practices that built on and reinforced unequal and exploitative relations of power. For instance, the Transatlantic Enslavement Trade, rural to urban migration during the Industrial Revolution (which was fuelled by the profits of enslavement) and contemporary migration flows from peripheral to core areas shed light on how exploitation and oppression have been at the core of modern and contemporary human mobility.
Migration intersects with ‘race’. ‘Race’, a social construct embedded in larger socio-economic and political processes aiming to define hierarchies between different racial groups, has justified, on a global scale, dehumanising, racialised and racist attitudes aiming to distribute positions of power differently and reinforce inclusion/exclusion of certain racial groups within a society. Looking at migration through the lens of race helps to shed light on how notions of racial difference, ideas of race and racial experiences justify discrimination against certain racialised migrant groups. For instance, it is hard to understand the hostile environment against contemporary refugees in Europe without questioning how race/racialisation intersect with migrant experiences and identities. The opposite is also true: looking at race through the lens of migration allows to shed light on how racialised and racist attitudes are rooted in past migration patterns. For instance, recent events such as the Windrush scandal and the Black Lives Matter movement have sparked a global conversation on racial inequality and systemic violence. Though, racism directed against these communities often tends to obscure their colonial and neo-colonial roots of migration. As British-Sri-Lankan sociologist A. Sivanandan pithily summed up: ‘We are here because you were there.’ Furthermore, the contributions of racialised migrants have often been marginalised. For instance, as Paul Gilroy contends, protagonists of the Black Atlantic crossed the ocean not merely as commodities but also as agents of liberation, thus shaping transatlantic modernity. Importantly, several scholars have demonstrated that race could not be looked at in isolation: instead, the notion of race is relational and intersects with various other identities, such as religion, ethnicity, class, colour, gender, to produce differentiated and mutable experiences of domination and suppression throughout history. For instance, slavery, (neo-)colonialism, neo-liberalism, white supremacy, border regimes, refugee policies and practices have created intersections of oppression that often feature race.
To break experiences of oppression and domination and favour inclusion of racialised groups, various governments have promoted inclusive practices and policies providing equal access to opportunities and resources. Nevertheless, inclusive practices should not be framed solely as a top-down initiative. Individuals and social groups also engage in everyday activities as well as discursive, performative, and creative practices that foster different forms of membership and belonging within the communities they belong to. In light of this picture, solidarity plays an important role as it opens up possibilities for inclusion that are not necessarily or solely led by top-down initiatives. Solidarity refers to powerful stories of courage, unity, and civic engagement developed by marginalised individuals and communities. Historically embedded and geographically located, solidarity refers to a heterogeneity of political and social practices describing social and communal bonds, civic obligation, and social groups’ struggles for social justice that occasionally transcend racial boundaries.
It is not a coincidence that this PhD summer school will take place in Preston, a city on the English periphery that integrates the principle of ‘community wealth building’ with that of inclusive citizenship via the so-called Preston Model. This model aims to create an ecosystem of change that tackles inequalities by ensuring a more inclusive culture and society and a more sustainable and equal economic development amongst all its residents, including those who are marginalised due to their race/gender/mobility status. Thus, in the attempt to further contribute to the analysis of race and migration, this PhD school also aims to facilitate discussions around community wealth building, solidarity and inclusive citizenship programmes and their economic, social, political, or cultural impact on marginalised migrant/displaced groups and the broader societies they are part of.
Potential themes and topics are the following (but are not limited to them):
- Race, migration and the Black Atlantic
- Black Lives Matters Movement
- The Black Community Liberationist movement
- Anti-racism and communities of resistance
- Migrations of anti-racist thought
- Migration, race and intersectionality
- Narratives and representations of migration and race/racism
- Migration, race/racism and practices of solidarity
- Migration, race/racism and community wealth building
List of speakers
In this PhD summer school, you will have a chance to interact and learn from a diverse range of scholars, artists and professionals who made a mark in their field in the UK, Europe and globally:
Prof Dr Natasha A. Kelly has a PhD in Communication Studies and Sociology from the University of Münster, Germany. A bestselling author and editor of ten books, she has held visiting professorships at numerous universities in Germany, Austria and the USA. In Fall 2023, she will take-up a three-year position as Professor for Cultural Studies at the Berlin University of Arts. She is the co-director of the Black European Academic Network (BEAN), a network that addresses systemic racism and discrimination in Europe and advocates for greater equity and inclusion within the European academic community. Kelly also acts as curator, artist, filmmaker, and theater director. Her artistic works have been shown at museums and on stages worldwide. As a member of the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM), her academic and artistic works advance to the digital space to include visions of Black futures. Kelly presently heads Germany’s first Institute for Black German Arts and Culture, opening in Fall 2023. Her latest publication “Schwarz. Deutsch. Weiblich. Warum Feminismus mehr als Geschlechtergerechtigkeit fordern muss“ was published at Piper Publishing House in August 2023.
Dr Bavaragh Dagalomai Jolan HSIEH (Ph.D. in Justice Studies, 2002, Arizona State University - Tempe) is Professor of Ethnic Relations and Cultures, at the College of Indigenous Studies of National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan. Her research expertise covers Human Rights, Law and Society, Gender / Ethnic / Class Studies, Critical Legal Studies and Transitional Justice, Global Indigenous Movement and Politics, Decolonization Indigenous Epistemology, Education, and Mainstreaming Policy. She has co-edited and authored: "Indigenous Reconciliation in Contemporary Taiwan - From Stigma to Hope" (Routledge, 2023) , "Collective Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Identity-Based Movement of Plain Indigenous in Taiwan" (Routledge, 2006) , "Siraya Peoples: A Historical Studies of Kang-a-na Tribal Village" ( The Taiwan Historica, 2022), " Indigenous Knowledge and Transdisciplinary Research" (NDHU, 2021), "Identity In Between, Research Practice and Methods as Indigenous Ceremony." (DawHsing, 20017), and many other multi-language book chapters and journal articles.
Dr Jade de Montserrat lives and works in North Yorkshire and was born in London. Concerned with challenging structures of care in institutions and with the intersection of gender, race, class, and colonialism, often in the context of life in rural communities, she makes artworks that explore the vulnerability of bodies, the importance of recording and preserving history, and the tactile and sensory qualities of language. She was the recipient of the Stuart Hall Foundation Scholarship supporting her PhD and the development of her work from her Black diasporic perspective in the North of England. She was also awarded a Jerwood Student Drawing Prize in 2017. Jade is represented by Bosse & Baum Gallery, London.
Prof Angelina Muniz-Huberman is a Spanish exiled/Mexican writer, academic, poet and professor. She is known for her work and research on exile and Jewish studies. As a writer she has been awarded several prestigious prizes such as the Xavier Villaurrutia Award and the Sort Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize. She is also a member os the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (AML) since January 2021.
Zaffar Kunial lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, and was born in Birmingham. His debut collection, Us, was shortlisted for a number of prizes, including the T. S. Eliot Prize. England’s Green, his latest collection, has been shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. https://www.faber.co.uk/author/zaffar-kunial/
Naush Sabah is a writer, editor, critic, and educator. She is the co-founded Editor and Publishing Director of Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal. She is also the co-founded and Editor-at-Large of Pallina Press, and trustee at Poetry London. Her writing has appeared in The Poetry Review, the TLS, PN Review, The Dark Horse, Modern Poetry in Translation, and elsewhere. A limited-edition double micro-pamphlet box set Heredity/ASTYNOME was published by Broken Sleep Books imprint Legitimate Snack in June 2020. She was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s 2021 Sky Arts Writers Award. Her debut pamphlet Litanies was published by Guillemot Press in November 2021 and shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award in 2022. She is also a visiting lecturer in creative writing at Birmingham City University. (Adapted from https://naushsabah.com/biography)
Dr Antri Kanikli is an Assistant Professor in Linguistics at UCLan Cyprus university. Her research interests focus on generative grammar, language disorders and multilingual acquisition. Antri is an experienced researcher. Her work has been published in top international linguistic journals, and she has led several externally funded research projects, including the award-winning Erasmus+ project "Planting Languages" for which she was the UCLan Cyprus Partner Leader.
Dr Ming-tso Chien is currently based in Taipei, Taiwan. He is an Experiential Education Manager affiliated with Minerva University. Mingtso earned his PhD in Education from the University of Maine in 2023 and has performed different roles within the education sector, including but not limited to a teacher, instructor, facilitator, experience designer, and education researcher. Academically, his core area of interests lies at the intersection of language, education, and migration. In his doctoral research, he explored the self-/positionings of a group of raciolinguistically minoritized transnational adolescent students in Maine through a multimodal method of inquiry in order to create space for alternative (ways of representing) narratives of transnational lived experiences within that particular educational context.
Dr Saulo Cwerner (Refugee and Asylum Lead at St Helen Council, UK) has 11 years of experience in Local Government, in the fields of equality and community cohesion, 6 years of experience as lead on refugee and asylum seeker issues, including the coordination of a refugee resettlement programme. He holds a PhD in Sociology, with over 5 years’ experience in academic research, with articles published in the fields of asylum, migration, mobility and cultural studies.
Dr José María Naharro-Calderón (Ph.D. 1985, University of Pennsylvania) is Professor of Spanish Literature, Iberian Cultures and Exile Studies, at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research covers both contemporary Spain and Latin America, specially exile literature and film, areas where he is recognized for his seminal work. He has authored: Entre el exilio y el interior. El "entresiglo" y Juan Ramón Jiménez (1994), and Entre alambradas y exilios. Sangrías de 'las Españas' y terapias de Vichy (2017).
Prof Champika Lasanthi Liyanage (UCLan) is the Co-director of UCLan’s Centre for Sustainable Transitions, and she is actively involved in a wide array of research relating to sustainability, facilities and infrastructure management, and capacity building in disaster resilience. She also is a member of the University’s Charter Marks group which provides a public opportunity to focus on equality strands.
Dr Roxanne Khan (UCLan) is an expert in violence and aggression. As Director of Honour Abuse Research Matrix (HARM), an international research consortium working to establish evidence-based policies and front-line responses to honour abuse, she is responsible for coordinating a multi-disciplinary transnational network of researchers, practitioners, policy makers, support agencies and survivors working to develop sustainable evidence-based strategies in response to the global health crisis of honour abuse, in all its forms - violence, killings, forced marriage and FGM. She is also Expert Advisor and Research Ethics Committee Reviewer, Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, a multi-disciplinary team, funded by the Home Office and hosted by Barnardo’s.
Other activities will include a visit to Lancaster caste and slave trade tour (organised by Prof Alan Rice, Director of MIDEX), a Tai-chi Session (organised by Feixia Yu, Awardee of the Mayor of Preston Coronavirus Pandemic City Hero), an ice-breaking session (organised by UCLan Postgraduate Research Team).
Mode of participation and costs
The PhD school will take place in Preston (UK) at the University of Central Lancashire. Participation can be in person and online:
- In person participation:
- £250 – Participants affiliated to IMISCOE Member Institutes
- £300 – Participants not affiliated to IMISCOE Member Institutes
- Online:
- £100 – Participants affiliated to IMISCOE Member Institutes
- £150 – Participants not affiliated to IMISCOE Member Institutes
Bursary up to £800 will be available for students with financial difficulties to attend the PhD summer school in person (upon presentation of travel documents and receipts)
Each participant is expected to submit a paper/PhD chapter linked to their presentation; the paper/PhD chapter will be shared with the participants in similar area of interest before the PhD summer school. One discussant will be assigned for each paper/presentation.
Timeline
- 26 November 2023: deadline for submission of expressions of interest (see below)
- 11 December 2023: notification of successful applicants
- 20 April 2024: paper submission (max 6,000 words)
How to apply
Follow this link https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/6786/submitter and complete the relevant parts:
- Bio (max 100 words)
- Abstract (max 300 words)
- How does your project resonate with the broader theme of the PhD summer school (max 150 words)
- If you apply for the bursary, please explain why you need financial support (max 150 words)
For more information, please contact:
