As the end of the semester rapidly approaches, we want to let you know about a few events happening on campus. While we are not directly involved as sponsors, we believe they may be of interest:
3/30, 4pm: “Writing for Love and Money: How Migration Promotes Literacy Learning in Transnational Families,” talk by Kate Vieira (University of Wisconsin). More information.
Closing 3/31: “Speeches—Chapter 3: Living Labour,” video by artist Bouchra Khalili installed in the Wexner Center’s Box gallery on the experiences of five undocumented workers in New York. 4/6, 4:30-5:30pm: “As If Traveling Were the Way of the Clouds,” exhibition opening at Hopkins Hall Gallery featuring three short videos from Arab artists focusing on global migration. Exhibition is up April 6-17. More information 4/7, 11:45am-4:30pm: Migration Studies Symposium, 18th Ave Library. More information 4/7-8: “The Somali Diaspora in the US,” workshop and events, various times and locations. More information. Our exhibit in collaboration with the Global Gallery at Hagerty Hall, “Migration and its Human Dimensions,” continues to be up through May 30th. More information. And finally, our grant awardees for this cycle have been announced! Visit https://u.osu.edu/globalmobility/grants/ for details. Our next deadline is for undergraduate/faculty mentorship grants on October 31, 2017.
The Migration Studies Working Group at OSU would invite everyone interested in migration to join them for the first Migration Studies Symposium at The Ohio State University on April 7th (11.45am-4.30pm), organized by The Migration Studies Working Group. The symposium will be held at 18th Ave Library, Room 070, 175 W 18th Ave, Columbus, OH 43210.
This event is free and open to all. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. Please RSVPby March 22 by participating in the survey.
The Migration Studies Working Group is an interdisciplinary graduate student-led and founded organization which aims to create an inspiring and productive interdisciplinary environment for a range of migration studies scholarship at The Ohio State University.
Regulating Flows of People Across Eurasia: Migration Policy in the Russian Federation
Regulating Flows of People Across Eurasia: Migration Policy in the Russian Federation
A Talk by Professor Sergei Abashin
European University at St. Petersburg
Tuesday, March 28, 3:00 – 4:30pm
Enarson Classroom Building 100
Join the Center for Slavic and East European Studies for a bilingual discussion about current migration policy within the Russian Federation. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has seen 25 years of migration flows as populations have adjusted to new state boundaries in the region, the aftermath of forced resettlement of populations during the Soviet Union, and the economic migration of populations from neighboring countries to work in Russia. With increased attention on migrants and immigration in countries across the world, this talk will focus on the flows of people within the Russian Federation, their causes and effects, and government and policy responses. Sergei Abashin, a professor of anthropology at the European University at St. Petersburg, is a specialist in migration studies and Central Asian nationality building who has done extensive field work in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The talk will be delivered in Russian, with simultaneous English translation. Students of Russian, as well as faculty and the general public who are interested in the topic but do not know Russian are encouraged to attend.
Watch a recording of the Facebook Livestream below.
Regulating Flows of People Across Eurasia: Migration Policy in the Russian Federation
A Talk by Professor Sergei Abashin, translated live by Natalia Zotova
European University at St. Petersburg
Tuesday, March 28, 3:00 – 4:30pm
Enarson Classroom Building 100
Please join Literacy Studies, co-sponsored by Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy and Latino/a Studies in observance of Cesar Chavez Day, this Thursday for this lecture engaging ideas of migration and literacy learning.
According to the UN, 244 million people currently live outside the countries of their birth. As more people worldwide migrate to find work, policy makers have expressed concerns about the effects on family dynamics and an international “brain drain.” Vieira’s ethnographic research reveals migration’s unexpected relationship to literacy learning as transnational families write to stay economically and intimately connected.
Kate Vieira teaches Composition and Rhetoric at University of Wisconsin, Madison and is author of ‘American By Paper’: How Documents Matter in Immigrant Migration (2016).
Our exhibit “Global Mobility and Its Human Dimensions” at The Global Gallery in Hagerty Hall continues through May 30, 2017. This exhibition is a collaborative effort of the Global Mobility Project and the Departments of Design and Comparative Studies.
The exhibit opening was on March 20, 5:00-6:00pm and featured performances by OSU students. Opening remarks by Dean David Manderscheid, Executive Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, and Peter Hahn, Divisional Dean, Arts & Humanities. Undergraduate research grant recipients and their mentors were recognized. Light refreshments were served.
TWAIN SHALL MEET…German Chancellor Angela Merkel greets students at the Sophie Scholl school during a visit on the fifth European Union school project day on May 16, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Why do people leave home? How do people adjust to new communities once they arrive? Migrants of all backgrounds share commonalities in their experiences. Nevertheless, each individual’s experience is unique and personal. This exhibition explores and complicates the notion of mobility as a singular experience by presenting a series of images and graphics that depict the goals, aspirations, difficulties, setbacks, and successes of migration.
Refugees cheer as they cross the border arriving from Hungary to Nickelsdorf. Photo: EPA
Migration is often portrayed as something foreign and distant, yet most of us share the experience of leaving home and starting a new chapter at The Ohio State University. Our community is shaped by the stories and influences of migrants to Columbus. We believe that in highlighting commonalities, this exhibition can provide connecting pieces that start conversations between diverse experiences here in Columbus and around the world. We hope that reflecting on others’ journeys can offer insight into our own relationships to home and to the lives of people we interact with every day.
The Global Mobility Project is an OSU Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Pilot Project which integrates the arts, humanities, and social sciences to facilitate both a conversation and an investigation of how local culture and individual decision-making inform and reflect the complex global forces behind mobility.
This exhibit was conceptualized by Ece Karaca and Sarah Craycraft and produced by Abhijit Varde, Assistant Director (CLLC), in consultation with The Global Mobility Project, an Humanities & Arts Discovery Theme pilot program.
This article was originally published on Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, created by the History Departments at The Ohio State University and Miami University. Professor Gatrell recently spoke as part of our Immigrants and Refugees: Comparative Experiences Lecture Series. You can watch his lecture here.
A great deal of ink—and much blood—has been spilled during the current “refugee crisis.” But what do we mean by that phrase?
It describes what has happened recently when Syrian, Afghan, and other refugees attempted the difficult journey to member states of the European Union in their ongoing search for safety. By extension, it describes the response of governments and the media to the refugees on Europe’s doorstep, a response many call inadequate.
The desperation of these refugees and asylum seekers and the challenges they face should not be minimized. But the shorthand of “refugee crisis” (meaning, in effect, “a crisis for European states,” rather than a crisis for refugees) neglects two fundamental issues.
One consideration is that, since 2011, most Syrian refugees either remain in Syria as internally displaced persons outside the scope of international legal conventions, or have found shelter in adjacent states such as Turkey and Lebanon.
Likewise, Afghan refugees are mainly sheltering in Pakistan: only a minority attempt the hazardous journey to Europe.
Congratulations to Global Mobility Team Member and History Professor Theodora Dragostinova who is this year’s recipient of the Paul W. Brown Award for Teaching Excellence in History! Find out more about Prof. Dragostinova’s teaching and research at https://history.osu.edu/people/dragostinova.1
by Eleanor Paynter, PhD Student, Department of Comparative Studies
La Pirogue (dir. Moussa Touré, 2012), screened by Global Mobility at the Wexner Center for the Arts on March 1, is, in many ways, about a gamble: 31 people sail from Senegal to the Canary Islands in a fishing vessel not meant for the open sea. La Pirogue recounts migration as not only the traversing of physical space, but as an internal journey as well. We learn the different motivations and hopes of nearly each migrant on board and watch as they are threatened by discord and by the sea itself. At the same time, La
Pirogue reminds us of what Douglas Massey and other migration scholars enunciated in the early 1990s: that the movement of a single person across a border always involves a larger network. Although most of this story unfolds within the tight quarters of the pirogue, any attempt to map the narrative would result in a many-threaded web reaching far beyond the boat itself – or Senegal or Spain. Some on board hope to reach relatives in France; once settled, they plan to bring over their spouses and children. They are motivated by stories of musical and athletic stardom, economic success, medical treatment, and employment. The film poignantly loads the Goor Fitt (“man of courage”) with its 31 passengers, rations of rice, a back-up engine, and these narratives.
A stunning screenshot from the film. The solidarity of 31 Africans, fleeing to Spain in a canoe, is tested once they run into trouble.
One of the most striking lines in La Pirogue comes near the beginning of the film, as the wife of protagonist Baye Laye suggests that he not leave Senegal for Spain because “Europe is going through a crisis,” a reference to the 2008 economic crisis and its global effects. It’s compelling to consider the shift of context that has occurred between the making of La Pirogue, in 2012, and of Gianfranco Rosi’s Italian documentary Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) just four years later, shown by the Global Mobility Project in January. Over the last two years, of course, Europe has been said to be undergoing another crisis, one marked by the arrival of more than 1.3 million migrants in 2015 and several hundred thousand since.
Global Mobility Project team member Vera Brunner-Sung and Associate Professor in History Ousman Kobo
At the March 1 viewing, discussion of La Pirogue included comments to contextualize the narrative in light of Senegalese political and economic history, as well to put it in conversation with Fuocoammare. This discussion was led by Vera Brunner-Sung, Global Mobility faculty member and Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre, and Ousman Kobo, Assistant Professor in the History Department and scholar of West African history. Prof. Brunner-Sung drew our attention to the theme of “the losing bet,” introduced in the wrestling match of the first scene. Prof. Kobo suggested that the film is commenting not only on migration, but on religious tensions in Senegal; within the microcosmic society in the boat, passengers argue over rituals and rites involving Muslim prayers or the placement of a talisman.
The pairing of La Pirogue with Fuocoammare provoked conversation about narrative perspectives, and about hope. Rosi’s recent documentary portrays the arrival of asylum seekers to the Italian island of Lampedusa; although it does not focus on individual migrant narratives, it does emphasize their rescue and entrance into EU territory. Touré’s 2012 film instead depicts the intimate narrative of a group of migrants as they prepare for and set out towards Europe on a journey which not all survive.
This pairing and the discussion with Profs. Brunner-Sung and Kodo also reminded those of us in the audience that although Baye Laye’s story is fictional, it is based on the migration of thousands of young men in just such vessels over at least the last decade, and many of these journeys end in tragedy. A note at the end of the film states that at least 5,000 of the 30,000 migrants who attempted this voyage from West Africa prior to the making of this film did not survive. As Prof. Kodo remarked, “This is the reality of our time.”
Viewers left the theater quietly, many of us still taking it in.
LIVE! Check out Refuge’s Refugee Advocacy Training in partnership with Central Ohio Solidarity with Refugees & Immigrants!! Livestreamed on Facebook and Recorded Live by Zakria Farah on Saturday, March 4, 2017
