Global (De)Centre (GDC) Annual Winter School: January 12-17, 2020

Forced Migration and Engaged Scholarship

A global conversation about theoretical concepts, discourse and empirical research.

Fundación Ortega-Marañón (FOM) in Toledo, Spain

COURSE DIRECTORS

Rosa Aparicio-Gómez, the Ortega y Gasset University Institute of Madrid (Spain)

Peggy Levitt, Wellesley College/Harvard University (USA)

Maurice Crul, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Michael Okyerefo Head of Department of Sociology, University of Ghana (Ghana)

 

THEME WINTER SCHOOL

For the sixth year in a row, the number of refugees in the world has increased by record numbers. Currently, one out of every 100 people has been forced to leave everything behind— either fleeing their homeland for an international destination or displaced within their own country. More than half are children and adolescents. Forced migration, therefore, affects our entire planet. And the closure of borders and the privatization of immigration detention centers means that more and more people, particularly women and children, who are forced to migrate end up imprisoned.

The “refugee crisis” is effectively a crisis over who has the right to move and who has the right to be protected in what ways. Since the vast majority of people become citizens purely by chance of where they are born, some of us are able to move freely, while others are trapped to remain in regions plagued by famine, war, crime, repression and poverty. This global inequality has no single cause nor one single solution.  Instead, we must go beyond disciplinary borders and regions to devise new ways of co-creating global equity. The GDC Toledo Winter school 2020 is an opportunity for students and professors to think creatively and innovatively together about how to address these challenges.

 

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The GDC Winter School will bring together engaged senior scholars and graduate students from across the world, from different disciplines, to work in small groups on academic and policy oriented assignments about forced migration. Participants will also engage with local Spanish NGOs working on this topic. We will review theories, discuss students’ empirical work, question the fundamental premises upon which refugee policies are based, and chart new ways forward.

This Winter School is central to the work of The Global (De)Centre— a scholarly network that aims to produce, disseminate, and act upon knowledge in more inclusive ways; train students;  encourage collaboration with a range of academic and non-academic partners; and reach new publics across the world on the topic of moving people and moving cultures. We seek new words, theories, methods, and partnerships, to make these readily and easily available, and to work with the next generation of students to create them (see www.globaldecentre.world).

 

BRIEF COURSE OUTLINE

Some see the current nationalist turn in politics, with its crackdowns on international migration and efforts to limit trade and slash budgets for humanitarian and development aid, as the beginning of the end of globalization. But global flows of people continue to rise. Some are forced to leave because of civil war, climate change or individual persecution. While much of the academic debates about these issues are based on the experience of specific regions, such as Europe, the US or Africa, this course goes further, bringing students in conversation with scholars from different continents who have different experiences and understandings about these topics.

Our winter school will be interactive and emphasize exchange between faculty and students. Participants will be asked, in different forms, to translate their findings from their own research and relate them to global debates of refugee issues. Participants will also have ample time to workshop their own projects and get extensive feedback from the faculty and their peers.

 

IMPORTANT DATES

Application Date: November 20, 2019

Send your applications to Prof. Rosa Aparicio-Gómez (rag.migraciones@fogm.es)

Application should include a short PhD project description, a paragraph about your motivation and a short CV (in total 1 page). 

Course dates: January 12-17, 2020

Course is worth one credit.

 

PROGRAM COSTS

Tuition Fee, including accommodation and all meals: 600 EUR

Students will be housed in San Juan de la Penitencia Residence Hall, located in the center of Toledo, where the classes are taught. Rooms can be single, double or triple. The Residence Hall provides students with bed linen and towels, and it has TV and computer rooms, a cafeteria and wifi throughout the building. https://studentsinspain.com/ourcampuses/

Participants need to travel to Madrid and from the Atocha train station take the AVE (high speed train) to Toledo which runs every hour and takes 32 minutes.