What can maps reveal about movement, displacement, and mobility? What are applications and limits of migration data? And how can we use digital tools to map migration?

This hands-on workshop introduces participants to using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to visualize and analyze human migration data. We will begin with an overview of key migration data sources and discuss why mapping is a tool for understanding migration patterns, drivers, and impacts. Participants will then learn how to use GIS tools to create visualizations, explore spatial relationships, and conduct basic analyses using real migration datasets. We will conclude with a discussion of how mapping techniques can support your own research or professional work, along with the possibilities and limitations of using GIS to study migration.

Speakers

Keith Jenkins, GIS & Geospatial Applications Librarian

John Zinda, Associate Professor, Global Development

This event is hosted by the Migrations Program's graduate fellows, part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies. For questions, please contact Kate Foster (kef72@cornell.edu) and Nicole Venker (ntt22@cornell.edu).

Asylum seekers and refugees from many areas of the world and specifically from Central and South America are desperately trying to immigrate to the United States. These migrants are traveling through dangerous areas and difficult terrain to reach the southern border of the US with the hopes of making a better life for themselves and their families.

When they arrive at the southern border they face danger, uncertainty, and a very large wall. Even after treacherous journeys to reach the Mexico/U.S. border, there are countless other, possibly insurmountable, obstacles. If they do reach the U.S. to seek asylum, they face arrest, detention, and possibly even deportation back to Mexico or the country from which they tried so hard to escape.

This debut documentary feature from local filmmaker Thomas Hoebbel explores contemporary challenges to immigration in the United States in 2024.documents their stories and the challenges they face on their journeys and explore possible remedies to what has become a broken system of immigration in the United States.

Filmmaker Thomas Hoebbel will join for a conversation after the film.

Free admission! Reserve your free ticket through Cornell Cinema. Sponsored by the Migrations Program at the Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Join Einaudi Center experts for World in Focus Talks on global events in the news and on your mind. Our faculty's research and policy insights put the world in focus.

This year we’re hosting informal campus discussions on many Tuesday afternoons. This week’s topic:

In the United States and around the world, strict immigration enforcement and violence are being wielded as political tools. Recent U.S. actions include surveillance of communities, indiscriminate detainment, and violence against protestors. Despite being framed as necessary for the safety of citizens, these tactics are rooted in histories of slavery, the prison industrial complex, and xenophobia.

Does this type of enforcement infringe on rights? How can we understand current events through the lens of global and historical contexts? Do present-day immigration policies make communities safer?

***

Featured Faculty

Shannon Gleeson (Migrations) | Industrial and Labor RelationsTristan Ivory (EAP, IAD) | International and Comparative LaborJaclyn Kelley-Widmer | LawNatasha Raheja (SAP) | AnthropologyIan Kysel | Law

***

Conversations Matter at Einaudi

This conversation is hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and its regional and thematic programs. Find out what's in store for students at Einaudi!

Rule Breakers tells the true story of Roya Mahboob, a visionary Afghan entrepreneur and advocate for girls’ education who defies rigid societal norms in her country. In a place where educating girls is treated like rebellion, Roya forms the first all-girls robotics team in Afghanistan and guides them to pursue their dreams in science and technology. As the team’s innovation and success draw international attention, they face mounting opposition, cultural resistance, and real threats, yet their courage, unity, and determination spark a broader movement that has the potential to change their nation forever.

The film focuses on themes of female empowerment, resilience, teamwork, and the transformative power of education. It follows the girls as they overcome personal and political obstacles, travel to competitions, and challenge deep-seated gender barriers in pursuit of their shared goals.

Following the screening, join filmmakers Roya Mahboob and Elaha Mahboob, along with Cornell faculty for a conversation on the film, their work, and the current context for Afghan communities in the U.S. today. The discussion will be followed by audience Q&A.

Free admission! This event is co-sponsored by Cornell Law School’s Migration and Human Rights Program, Berger International Speaker Series, Immigration Law & Advocacy Clinic, Gender Justice Clinic, Dorothea S. Clarke Program, and the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard’s documentary Singing Back the Buffalo follows Indigenous visionaries, scientists, and communities who are rematriating the buffalo to the heart of the North American plains they once defined, signaling a turning point for Indigenous nations, the ecosystem, and all of our collective survival.

Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance. On her journey, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate – but uncertain – goal of buffalo rematriation. After their dark recent history of almost extinction, and in this time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow.

Richly visualized and deeply uplifting, Singing Back the Buffalo is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp, thanks to the unwavering vision of Indigenous leaders.

Free admission! Reserve your free ticket through Cornell Cinema. Sponsored by the Migrations Program at the Einaudi Center for International Studies and cosponsored by the American Indian & Indigenous Studies Program.