This x-student research project, presented as a block seminar, explores and analyzes emerging theories and approaches that stress the necessity of decolonization, transnationalism, and intersectionality in studying migration and migratory issues. The research question of the seminar is indeed both an ethical and critical one: how we can conduct research (in the field of migration studies) without (re-)producing certain norms and power relations that not only negatively impact our outcomes but also contribute to further oppression and exploitation of objects/subjects of the research. Within the course of the project/seminar, by reading and discussing theoretical contributions to develop critical migration studies beyond the existing epistemological and national/colonial boundaries as well as by analyzing latest empirical inquiries about migration within and from Middle Eastern countries (as a field of research), the collaborators would collectively develop a preliminary guideline for conducting critical and ethical migration studies. The course is designed by students for students and is directed at (international) students of different fields of study in social sciences, from migration studies and mobility studies, to global studies, Middle Eastern studies and transnationalism studies. The prerequisites are thereby English language, basic knowledge in humanities and social sciences in terms of theories and methodologies, and basic knowledge about migration and its various forms.

Please find more Information on the schedule and the reading list here.