Interdisciplinary Summer School on Forced Displacement
Program Background and Objectives
Long before the “long summer of migration” in 2015, the US and the European Union began working on establishing strict border regimes that limit access to their territories and asylum processing systems for people on the move. Asylum seekers and migrants arriving to European land and shores are being “pushed-back” outside of the EU territory, abandoned or pushed back at sea, held in legal limbo in EU states such as Greece, or detained in countries outside of EU such as Libya.
When and why did these border strategies develop, and what unique and common histories brought them into existence? What is the current impact of these policies on migrants and their hosts? How do migrants and those who work in solidarity with them organize to support or oppose certain policies? In this two-week intensive course, students from all disciplines and from different universities will explore these questions through weekly journals, lectures, and seminars run by researchers and scholars from partner universities, hands-on workshops and site visits and discussions with nonprofit organizations, service providers, policymakers, and government officials.
The main objectives of this summer school are:
- Bridge the gap between academic research and practice and connect scholars with practitioners, artists and activists working in the field of forced displacement;
- Create a hub for researchers and practitioners to meet and work on new research projects;
- Create space for thinking about, discussing, and designing innovative solutions to current issues and challenges of forced displacement;
- Design and use innovative pedagogical tools and approaches to interdisciplinary, critical studies of forced displacement;
- Educate a new generation of researchers and practitioners in forced displacement.