CMS International Research Conference 2023

On April 25th and 26th, 2023, UBC Centre for Migration Studies partnered with Queen’s University Belfast to host its inaugural International Research Conference.

Designed to foster interdisciplinary dialogues among graduate students and early career researchers working on borders and migration, the International Research Conference 2023 featured various cutting-edge presentations across four panels: “Placemaking and belonging”, “Mobility in policy”, “Vulnerabilities and representation”, and “Gender and migration”; plus, an intensive workshop on publishing-oriented writing practices in the field. The full conference agenda can be found here.

The keynote speech was given by Shahram Khosravi.

Conference Program

Tuesday April 25, 2023

8:30 AM – Breakfast

9:00 AM – Welcome remarks by Antje Ellermann (CMS Director)

9:15 AM - Keynote by Dr. Shahram Khosravi

10:15 AM - Break

10:30 AM - Panel 1: Placemaking and Belonging

Discussant: Dr. Amanda Cheong, Assistant Professor, UBC Dept of Sociology

Speakers:

Mahashewta Bhattacharya, University of British Columbia
Yijia Zhang, University of British Columbia

11:15 AM - Panel 2: Mobility in Policy

Discussant: Dr. Heather Johnson, Senior Lecturer, QUB School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics

Speakers:

Lorenia Salgado-Leos, University of British Columbia
Charlie Pearson, Queen's University Belfast

1:00 PM – Panel 3: Vulnerabilities and Representation

Discussant: Dr. Helen Zeweri, Assistant Professor, UBC Dept of Anthropology

Speakers:

Sydney Holt, Queen's University Belfast
Judith Atwell, Queen's University Belfast
Stephen Murray, Queen's University Belfast

2:30 PM – Writing Pairs Workshop 1 – Introduction

Wednesday April 26, 2023

9:15 AM – Panel 4: Gender and Migration

Discussant: Dr. Gerry Pratt, Professor & Head of Dept, UBC Dept of Geography

Speakers:

Keysha Jaime Orona, Queen's University Belfast
Ibukun Kayode, University of British Columbia
Amanda Lubit, Queen's University Belfast

10:45 AM: Writing Pairs Workshop

1:00 PM – Publishing/Writing Panel

Speakers:

Rima Wilkes, University of British Columbia
Heather Johnson, Queen's University Belfast
Tom Hulme, Queen's University Belfast

2:30 PM: Closing Remarks

Shahram Khosravi is a Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Since early in his academic career, Khosravi has been working in two different research fields: precarity in urban Iran and the migration and border studies of Europe. He defended his doctoral dissertation on youth culture in Tehran in 2003, which later was published by the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 (Young and Defiant in Tehran), followed by his second book on social changes in Iranian society published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2017 (Precarious Lives, Waiting and Hope in Iran).

Since 2004, he has also been studying borders and borderings practices in Europe. These projects include fieldwork among undocumented immigrants in Stockholm, published in Illegal Traveler: An Auto-ethnography of Borders, and fieldwork research on the consequences of deportation for Afghan migrations, published in After Deportation: Ethnographic Perspectives (by Palgrave 2017). His most recent project has been on temporal bordering, resulting in two books: Waiting and the Temporalities of Irregular Migration (Routledge 2020) and an art book Waiting – A Project in Conversation (Transcript 2020).

As a public educator, Professor Khosravi has been active in the media as well. He has written for Swedish newspapers, The Guardian and the New York Times. His works have been translated into many languages, such as Chinese, Armenian, Persian, Greek, Spanish, Italian and French. In 2017, he started Critical Border Studies, which is a network for scholars, artists and activists to interact.

Professor Khosravi is currently engaging with the Durham-led interdisciplinary project, The Politics of Credibility. The project will cast fresh analytical light on the politics of credibility that underpin asylum determination regimes in the UK and Europe (Greece, Cyprus and Germany).

Explore the standout moments of this first edition: