Since the so-called ‘Mediterranean migration crisis’ in 2015-16, the member states of the European Union with few exceptions have seen a marked shift to the right in the voting behavior of their electorates as existing and sometimes new authoritarian populist parties have identified the arrival of refugees and irregular migrants on Europe’s shores as a threat to security, social order and even ‘Christian civilization’. Although the numbers seeking sanctuary in a European continent of some 550 million+ people are not significant in world terms (only 7 million of the world’s 103 million forcibly displaced people were to be found in Europe in 2021) the political consequences of these new arrivals have been profound, dramatic and long-lasting. The successful campaign for ‘Brexit’ in the 2016 referendum on future UK membership of the European Union, and the EU-Turkey deal which led to a significant reduction in small boat crossings to Greece in return for large refugee aid payments from Brussels, have promoted a ‘Fortress Europe’ security agenda above concerns for human rights and compliance with the international refugee convention and international law. In this lecture, I explore why the presence of a small percentage of ‘uninvited guests’ has been much more of a threat to liberal democracy and the rule of law in Europe than it has been to the stability of governments and party systems in other parts of the world, why the presence of larger numbers of war displaced Ukrainians is generally not seen as problematic by neighboring European countries, and what are the long-term consequences for rights-based democracies in Europe and ‘the Global North’ in general in the face of increased population displacement pressures brought about by conflict, poverty and climate change.

Speaker
Simon Parker, Professor in Politics, Co-Director of the Centre for Urban Research, Co-Chair of the Migration Network at the University of York

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Current calls to decolonize global research renew the institutional and personal scrutiny of our “best practices” in conducting field research. Beyond formal adherence to the Belmont principles of “respect, beneficence, and justice,” researchers must reexamine some of the hidden (and not so hidden) costs borne by the local community in the research effort. Panelists will discuss ethical considerations of international research and ethnography in a variety of methodological practices: randomized control trials, focus group discussions, essay competitions, and selective summer camps.

Moderator

Rachel Beatty Riedl (Government, A&S; Einaudi Center)Panelists

Arnab Basu (Dyson School)Alex Nading (Anthropology, A&S)Sarah Thompson (South Asia Program, Einaudi Center)***

Grad Chats: Conversations on International Research and Practice is a series hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies to support graduate students with interdisciplinary training and planning around conducting international research.

Spring 2023 Schedule

From Plan A to Plan B: Designing Research for a Changing World (Thursday, February 16, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G02)Beyond the IRB: Ethics and International Research (Wednesday, March 29, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)Best Practices and Challenges in International Field Research (Thursday, March 30, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G02)Finding a Research Focus through Creative Writing (Tuesday, April 18, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)Travel Health and Safety Awareness for Conducting Research Abroad (Tuesday, May 9, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)

What do you do when the site where you planned to do your research has a major disruption making your research infeasible? What do you do when a loved one gets sick and you need to find more time for caregiving in the last semester of your program? What do you do when you get a job—a year earlier than you anticipated—and you need to finish quickly? Have a Plan B! Come hear from current and former PhD students who have had to make changes in plans, how they negotiated the process with their committee, and where they are today.

Moderator

Mildred Warner (City and Regional Planning, AAP)Panelists

Gloria Blaise (Natural Resources and the Environment, CALS)Michael Cary (Global Development, CALS)George Homsy (Binghamton University)Adam (Chuling) Huang (International and Comparative Labor, ILR)***

Grad Chats: Conversations on International Research and Practice is a series hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies to support graduate students with interdisciplinary training and planning around conducting international research.

Spring 2023 Schedule

From Plan A to Plan B: Designing Research for a Changing World (Thursday, February 16, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G02)Best Practices and Challenges in International Field Research (Tuesday, March 14, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)Beyond the IRB: Ethics and International Research (Wednesday, March 29, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)Finding a Research Focus through Creative Writing (Tuesday, April 18, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)Travel Health and Safety Awareness for Conducting Research Abroad (Tuesday, May 9, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Uris Hall G08)

Open up a whole new world by studying abroad!

Cornellians who have studied abroad are sharing their experiences at the Office of Global Learning's study abroad fair. You'll learn about where in the world you can study, what programs work for you and your major, and how study abroad can enhance your college experience.

Join us for international treats! No registration required.

Talk by Taieb Berrada

This talk will deal with the way Moroccan literature written in French creates a political space challenging the patriarchal establishment by reinterpreting foundational myths in Islam. We will discuss two political and symbolic forces at work in this type of literature: expressing one’s self in the language of the French colonial Other and narrating marginal sexual relationships in Morocco under the harsh dictatorship of Hassan II. It is the interplay of these two aspects that leads to the creation of a new narrative about sexual identities. By doing so, it reveals the instability of a model of identification subjected to a normalizing sexual apparatus controlling bodies and minds in a society where for example homosexual acts are still punishable by law. I will argue that writings by authors such as Abdellah Taïa, Nedjma and others create revised sexual identities, which become emancipated from the Western Oedipal complex while at the same time looking for alternative interpretations of Islamic traditions. Hence, those sexual identities call for a reevaluation of the normativity imposed by the king who is using his power based on a patriarchal interpretation of religious legitimacy in view of political gain.

Talk by Nilay Ozok

Kurdish emirates came under Ottoman rule in the sixteenth century within the context of the Ottoman-Safavid imperial rivalry. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Kurdish begs maintained a degree of “autonomy” recognized by successive Ottoman sultans. This autonomy entailed various hereditary administrative and fiscal privileges granted to the Kurdish nobility most important of which was their unhindered control over land and agricultural revenues. This talk discusses the making and the eventual dissolution of the Kurdish nobility in the Ottoman realm with a specific focus on land ownership and its transformation during the Ottoman reform era of Tanzimat in the nineteenth century.

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Get involved with the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Language Resource Center to enhance your language skills!

Through resources on campus, students of all levels can improve global language skills, apply for funding to practice language abroad, and more.

Opportunities include:

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) FellowshipRare and Distinctive (RAD) Language FellowshipForeign Language Introduction Program (FLIP)Conversation HoursLearn more about student information sessions from the Einaudi Center on minors, funding opportunities, Fulbright, summer language programs, and much more.

Over 500 Cornellians have crossed the globe with the Fulbright U.S. Student Program since the 1940s. You could be the next!

The program, administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, supports college graduates conducting research or teaching English in more than 150 countries. The Einaudi Center's Fulbright advisor helps you get started early to submit a successful application.

Learn more about student information sessions from the Einaudi Center on minors, funding opportunities, Fulbright, summer language programs, and much more.