October 9, 2013
Photo credit: Luther Caverly

A growing partnership of different perspectives

As world leaders quibble over the crisis in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan grapple with the influx of an estimated two million refugees who have fled the conflict.

The situation is one of many contributing to overall global migration numbers and influencing diasporic communities.
Researchers at Carleton University have created the Migration and Diaspora Studies (MDS) initiative to better understand the range of issues affecting migrants, refugees and diasporic communities. These include social, political and economic implications as well as cultural contributions.

MDS includes scholars who examine the impact of migration and diaspora from different perspectives.

According to James Milner, associate professor of political science, migrants, refugees, and displaced persons share common challenges. These include a “sense of belonging, citizenship, rights and responsibilities in a new homeland.” These challenges are studied by social scientists of course, but they also lead to cultural expression, which is the focus of scholars in the humanities.

Thus, MDS includes scholars from the social sciences and the humanities who examine the impact of migration and diaspora from different perspectives.

“Some of the members of this group look at how questions of immigration or diaspora are inscribed within the texture of a work of literature, film, visual art, performance, music,” said Catherine Khordoc, director of Carleton’s Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis (CTCA), “and how these cultural productions contribute to the way that immigration/diaspora are understood, perceived, both by the creators and their audiences.”

MDS emerged as a grassroots initiative in 2009 after Carleton identified a number of research themes upon which it would focus. Among these was globalization and global identities – a research strength among the university’s social sciences and humanities scholars.

…(The MDS) initiative has grown to include approximately 60 faculty members and graduate students…

Milner and Jeff Sahadeo, associate professor of political science and director of the Institute of European, Russia and Eurasian Studies, contacted colleagues at Carleton’s CTCA, and Centre for International Migration and Settlement Studies (CIMSS). They were able to quickly identify research linkages.

Over a three-year period, the initiative has grown to include approximately 60 faculty members and graduate students from the Faculties of Public Affairs, Arts and Social Sciences, and Sprott School of Business.

A research collective, MDS emphasizes the importance of creating a sense of community for Carleton researchers working in the field, while also fostering collaboration among them.

The initiative was a successful applicant to the Carleton University Research Excellence Fund that allowed them to create a website and a new faculty position dedicated to MDS.

“The potential and excitement for where this can go is really quite incredible,” said Milner.

In 2014 MDS will welcome Daniel McNeil to Carleton. McNeil is the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Professor of African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul University.

The potential and excitement for where this can go is really quite incredible

When he joins Carleton, McNeil will be both the first of the university’s four newly created strategic positions, and a full-time faculty member dedicated to the MDS.

“I hope to build on the formal and informal associations between the Migration and Diaspora Studies initiative and related research, policy and practitioner communities, and help Carleton enhance its position as national and international leader in the study of global identities and globalization,” said McNeil.

“Dr. McNeil will bring a bird’s-eye perspective that will encourage the types of connections we know exist,” said Milner.

In addition to identifying new opportunities and collaborations for Carleton’s researchers, McNeil will develop a second-year interdisciplinary course drawing from both the humanities and social sciences.
He will also identify existing courses that would comprise the core requirements for a specialization in migration and diaspora studies within a planned new Bachelor of Global and International studies.

There are also plans to develop a collaborative MA in MDS.

MDS is overseen by a steering committee comprising Milner, Sahadeo, Khordoc, CTCA’s Sarah Casteel and Ming Tiampo as well as CIMSS Academic Director Colleen Lundy along with Behnem Behnia and Adnan Türegün. Martin Geiger, a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow and Howard Duncan, executive head of Metropolis round out the committee.

The committee aims to position Carleton University as a centre of expertise on advanced knowledge, understanding, and potential solutions, related to issues on migration and diaspora studies.

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