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Roundtable Discussion: Interdisciplinary Methods for Migration Studies

image of Turkish tea
January 31, 2019
All Day
Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43210

Interdisciplinary Methods for Migration Studies

A roundtable discussion with MMI Postdoctoral Researchers

Michelle O’Brien, Moriah Flagler, Sona Hill, Harry Kashdan, and Danielle Schoon

Thursday, January 31st

10-11:30am (90 minutes)

Mershon 120 (Conference Room)

Light refreshments will be served.

In this roundtable on Interdisciplinary Methods for Migration Studies, five MMI Postdoctoral Researchers will discuss their experiences and challenges with particular methodologies for studying migration and mobility in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. After these brief presentations, attendees will be invited to participate in a lively, open discussion about the integration of methods and practices across disciplines, particularly innovative methods and practices that can have a social impact. This event aims to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue.

Sona Hill is a postdoctoral researcher of global migration, medical humanities, and disability studies in the department of English, where she conducts research on transnational regimes of power and ideology such as war, displacement, and incarceration that create disability. Sona will discuss: What is axiology? Participatory research versus emancipatory research: A research that helps or a research that hurts.

Harry Kashdan is a postdoctoral researcher in the Global Mediterranean. Harry will discuss strategies for close reading cookbooks, with attention to how cookbooks index histories of migration, and the tension between their status as historical archives and and the possibility of treating them as literary texts.

Michelle O’Brien is a postdoctoral researcher at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. She studies migration as a complex decision influenced by economic and political factors, including violent and non-violent conflict. Michelle will overview the use of quantitative analyses to study migration, with an emphasis on tracing long-term processes.

Moriah Flagler is a postdoctoral researcher in the departments of Theatre and Comparative Studies and the Artistic Director of Be the Street. Moriah will discuss how her work uses grounded theory with a flexible research question to see what communities bring to the work. She is also working to decolonize research by positioning young people as co-researchers.

Danielle Schoon is a cultural anthropologist and a lecturer in the departments of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Sociology. Danielle will speak about her ethnographic research with a vulnerable community in Istanbul, Turkey, and the ‘communities of practice’ model for collective research.