Migrations
Studying populations on the move has never been more important. At the Einaudi Center, we are committed to furthering our global understandings of multispecies migration through interdisciplinary perspectives, working alongside Migrations: A Global Grand Challenge, part of Global Cornell.
In 2021, the initiative received $5 million from the Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative to advance the study of racism, dispossession, and migration. Our regular partnership with Migrations supports this work, including through an annual summer institute for emerging scholars, professional development for community college faculty, and regular migration-related events.
Borders, Captivity, and Memory in Transnational Italy and the Mediterranean
The Einaudi Center's postdoctoral fellow Eleanor Paynter co-organized this two-day virtual symposium that explored the relationship between borders, captivity, and memory, and how it shapes the racialization of migration and the construction of national identity.
This event was co-sponsored by the Einaudi Center and our Institute for European Studies.
Opportunities for Undergraduates
Migration Studies Minor
The Einaudi Center hosts a migration studies minor for undergraduates and offers frequent migration-themed events and funding opportunities.
Migrations Scholars
These students are passionate about critical migration issues, supporting the Einaudi Migrations team in shaping the direction of the initiative.
Refugee and Immigrant Health Team
The Einaudi Center’s Migrations team concentrates on improving the health and well-being of refugee and immigrant populations in the United States.
Working at the nexus of law, medicine, and technology, the team is investigating how increasing immigrants’ knowledge about legal rights can help them engage with health care systems. The research will produce new digital tools to inform immigrants of their rights and increase their participation in health systems and public benefits.
Gunisha Kaur (Weill Cornell Medicine) and Stephen Yale-Loehr (Cornell Law School) received dual funding to serve as Einaudi’s faculty fellows, leading a multicampus collaboration that includes postdoctoral fellow Eleanor Paynter.
Faculty Fellows
Gunisha Kaur
Gunisha Kaur is an anesthesiologist specializing in global health and human rights, particularly among displaced populations. She serves as medical director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights and as director of the Anesthesiology Global Health Initiative.
Stephen Yale-Loehr
Stephen Yale-Loehr is a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School and a counsel at Miller Mayer in Ithaca, New York. A coauthor of Immigration Law and Procedure, the leading treatise on U.S. immigration law, he works with refugees and people who are detained.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Eleanor Paynter
Eleanor Paynter graduated from the Ohio State University with a doctorate in comparative studies. She studies migration from Africa to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, using migrant testimonies to analyze displacement and asylum. Her dissertation received the International Studies Association’s 2021 Lynne Rienner Publishers Award for Best Dissertation in Human Rights.
Collaborators
Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research
Natalie Bazarova
Natalie Bazarova is an associate professor of communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She examines social-psychological and communication processes in social media and mobile interactions.
Migrations: A World on the Move
Hosted by our Migrations postdoctoral fellow Eleanor Paynter, the Migrations: A World on the Move podcast engages scholars, artists, and activists on key migration themes. In the current season, the show is thinking about questions of waiting and how experiences of limbo, uncertainty, and delay are core to understanding the dynamics of migration.