Critical Migration Studies and Post-Colonial Enquiries in Europe and South-Asia

2nd CeMig Migration Research Lab with Prof. Dr. Ranabir Samaddar (Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group), Prof. Dr. Ravi Ahuja (CeMIS) & Prof. Dr. Sabine Hess (CeMig) jointly hosted by the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) and the Centre for Global Migration Studies (CeMig)

Date: Thursday, 31.01.2019, 13:00 - 16:00
Venue: CeMIS Board Room (2.112, Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen)

Theme:
This workshop with Ranabir Samaddar, Ravi Ahuja and Sabine Hess is designed to initiate exchange about critical migration studies in the EU and South-Asia. It takes to its starting point that Europe’s present situation bears remarkable similarity with the post-colonial bind in which South-Asia and much of the world finds itself. Taking a critical post-colonial perspective on both regions, we reflect on the concept of the nation-state, constructs of borders and the often restrictive and contradictory policies and programs relating to immigration and refugee protection. The focus is on the post-colonial political, ideological, and discursive contexts in which migration appears as a “crisis” for Europe, but also for other parts in the world.
The workshop addresses empirically working PhD students and PostDocs from various disciplines (social and cultural anthropology, political sciences, sociology, law, history…). The overall idea is to offer a forum to discuss research data, methodological questions and analytical challenges. Participants are expected to prepare short input presentations (5-7 min.) on their pressing research questions, methodological challenges or conceptual questions.

Suggested Readings (can be sent on demand):
Samaddar, Ranabir (2018) Histories of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century immigration and our time. Current Sociology 66(2): 192–208.

—. (2017) Power and Responsibility at the Margins: The Case of India in the Global Refugee Regime. Refuge 33 (1): 42-51.

About Prof. Dr. Ranabir Samaddar
Ranabir Samaddar is the Director of the Calcutta Research Group and Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies. He has pioneered along with others peace studies programs in South Asia. He has worked extensively on issues of justice, rights and peace in the context of conflicts in South Asia. His particular researches have been on migration and refugee studies, the theory and practices of dialogue, nationalism and post-colonial statehood in South Asia, and new regimes of technological restructuring and labor control. He authored a three-volume study of Indian nationalism (“Whose Asia Is It Anyway – Nation and The Region in South Asia”, 1996, “The Marginal Nation – Transborder Migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal”, 1999, and “A Biography of the Indian Nation”, 1947-1997”, 2001). Recently he published a book on “A Post-Colonial Enquiry into Europe’s Debt and Migration Crisis” (Sage, 2016) and is currently finalizing a book provisionally entitled “The Postcolonial Age of Migration.”
On 31st January, 7:00 – 8:30 pm (VG. 4.102) he gives a lecture with the title "The New Compact and the Global Gaze of Care and Power" as part of the CeMig lecture series on the "Root Causes of Forced Migration”.

About Prof. Dr. Ravi Ahuja
Ravi Ahuja is head of the research group ‘Modern Indian History’ at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies of the University of Göttingen. He has worked on various aspects of India’s social history from 18th to 20th century including urban history, the history of infrastructure and the social history of war. His research interests have increasingly moved towards contemporary history. Current research projects examine migration and labor from a global and South-Asian Perspective as e.g. the social history of South Asian seafarers and the emergence of a labour-centred social policy in mid-twentieth century India. He published the monograph “Pathways of Empire. Circulation, 'Public Works' and Social Space in Colonial Orissa (c. 1780-1914)” (Orient Blackswan, 2009) and is (co-)editor of “Working Lives and Worker Militancy: The Politics of Labour in Colonial India” (Tulika, 2013) and “The World in World Wars. Experiences, Perceptions and Perspectives from the South” (Brill, 2010).

About Prof. Dr. Sabine Hess
Sabine Hess is professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology / European Ethnology and director of the Centre for Global Migration Studies at the University of Göttingen. She is the coordinator of the “The Critical Migration and Border Regime Research Laboratory” and founding member of the interdisciplinary research network “kritnet”. Her research interests include migration and border regime studies, transnationalisation and Europeanization studies, the anthropology of policy and legal anthropology. She is co-editor of “movements: Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies” and “Grenzregime III. Der lange Sommer der Migration” (2016).