MADEINEUROPE - Migration and diversity in European cities
Interdisciplinary multi-sited winter school
Migration has always played a central role in European societies. Yet, over recent decades, patterns and magnitude of human mobility have increased leading to rapid socio-demographic changes in Europe. Cities are the primary destination of migrants and where migration-driven diversity is occurring at a faster pace.
Cities are also strategic sites for the formation of new types of identities, communities, new political subjects, and possibilities for social transformation. The EUniWell Winter School on Migration and Diversity in European Cities (MADEINEUROPE) brought together postgraduate students from across Europe and academics from EUniWell universities to critically examine the politics of migration, diversity and inclusion in Europe and how European cities are shaped by migration and respond, adjust and accommodate newcomers.
The MADEINEUROPE Winter School is led by Professor Nando Sigona, Director of the University of Birmingham’s Institute for Research into Refugees, International Migration and Superdiversity (IRiS). It is organised in collaboration with the University of Cologne (Germany), University of Florence (Italy), Leiden University (The Netherlands) and Linnaeus University (Sweden).
Purpose and Significance
Promoting diversity and inclusion are two core values of the EUniWell network and crucial to achieve individual and societal well-being. The MADEINEUROPE Winter School contributes to these objectives through a collaboration across the EUniWell network around the issues of migration, diversity and inclusion adopting an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary lens.
Implementation Method and Timeline
Participants (master’s and PhD students) tackle migration-related changes and dynamics in European cities through a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on migration, diversity and inclusion. Over the course of four weeks, selected participants access two pre-recorded lectures and two live online seminars each week, each session drawing on a different perspective from law, anthropology, history, social policy, social work, and sociology. Participants also participate in one-to-one tutorials and collaborate with a peer group in a group project, supported by an academic mentor. Groups presented their work at the end of the online course and will meet in-person for a final event at the University of Florence in June 2022.
Outcomes
At the first MADEINEROPE Winter School, 9 academics from 5 EUniWell universities came together to create a bespoke syllabus, lectures, readings and seminars on migration and diversity in European cities. 40 postgraduates from across Europe and beyond actively engaged in the Winter School. Groups presented their group projects at a final webinar and will be able to meet in person at a final event in June (postponed due to Covid).
Contact
Prof Nando Sigona (Birmingham)
