Teaching Workshop

Interdisciplinary teaching approaches: Exploring the intersection of migration and urban challenges

Argument

In today’s increasingly interconnected world, understanding the complex interplay between migration patterns and urban environments is crucial. This workshop seeks to sensitize early career researchers on how to integrate the intersection of migration and urban challenges into their teaching practices, fostering a deeper understanding of contemporary societal challenges and opportunities. This event is organized by GRITIM-UPF, in the framework of the BROAD-ER’s training activities. The workshop is based on the experiences of four researchers teaching at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, coming from different disciplines (political science, anthropology, sociology, geography).

Even if the teaching practices and the research track of the speakers are more connected to migration studies, this workshop aims to discuss why and how to connect migration and urban challenges into the teaching practices. The assumption of this teaching workshop is that this connection is crucial to understand the social, economic, and political transformations that shape societies. Whether in the academic or non-academic world, further teachings connecting migration and urban challenges may address the challenges of migration governance, such as the decoupling of stakeholders and policies.

Key Objectives

• Present and discuss with early career researchers teaching methods and how to integrate migration and urban challenges into their (future) teaching activities.
• Use relevant methods: discussion on how to adapt methods to several topics and audiences.
• Facilitate discussions on best practices, challenges, and opportunities in teaching migration and urban dynamics.
• Mobilize innovative pedagogical approaches: the workshop aims to present different ways of stimulating students as well as the necessary approaches to encourage participation.

Rationale

1. Relevance: Migration and urbanization are defining features of the 21st century, shaping societies, economies, and cultures worldwide. By equipping early career researchers with the tools to navigate these topics, we ensure that students are prepared to engage with the realities of our globalized world.
2. Interdisciplinarity: Addressing migration and urban challenges requires a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from fields such as sociology, geography, anthropology, economics, and political science. This workshop encourages (future) teachers to transcend disciplinary boundaries, fostering collaboration and holistic understanding.
3. Engagement: Integrating case studies into teaching enhances student engagement and promotes critical thinking. By connecting theoretical concepts with concrete examples, teachers can create immersive learning experiences that resonate with students from diverse backgrounds.
4. Preparation for the Future: As (future) teachers, our role extends beyond imparting knowledge; we are preparing the next generation of leaders, policymakers, and change-makers. By equipping students with a nuanced understanding of migration and urban challenges, we empower them to navigate complex societal issues and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

Presentations

Gebhardt, Dirk

Title: Teaching migration governance

The objective of the “migration governance” course is to analyse present-day governance of migration with a focus on Europe and its neighbouring regions. I provide some introduction to the main concepts, such as governance, the history of migration governance, inter-governmental relations etc. and to each individual class. The course is structured along two main red threads: (1) key policies that illustrate some key areas of current migration governance: e.g. the failure of the common European asylum system, externalisation, labour migration, post-migration policies (i.e. citizenship and integration) etc. and which are paired with (2) the predominant scales/levels of governance (international level, EU, national level, local level) where they are regulated. 

Students participate in presenting a case-study on a governance problem related to the course theme –  (e.g.: does externalisation work? Are civic integration programs illiberal? How can cities foster political participation? etc.). They are encouraged to use policy-oriented reports in addition to academic literature, as  -in my experience- processing this type of documents is a useful skill to develop. I have made good experiences recently in experimenting with role-play type of games, in which students are supposed to enact different actors with their given position to address a governance problem. 

There is scope for strengthening an urban studies perspective in this class, for instance, by spending more time on unpacking “cities” into the very heterogeneous set of actors that are often subsumed under this category in migration studies; and by analysing the links of “integration policies” with the very distinct social, economic, and political realities of cities. I am thinking about re-organising the course to systematically take cities as a starting point of a wider reconstruction of migration governance over various areas and scales.

Rodríguez Reche, Cristina

Title: Living together in diversity? Navigating super-diversity at the city level.

I will articulate the talk around three different sections based on the experience I am learning from teaching;

The first would be my theoretical approach to reflect on this issue. As operationalization of the basic concepts to understand the course, I think it is essential for the audience/students to go in-depth into these terms: Super-diversity, Intersectionality, Racialisation, Ethnic Prejudices or Governance. The audience should also be brought closer to the different paradigms of diversity management (multiculturalism, interculturalism, assimilationism). It is vital that they also know the existing theoretical debate around these paradigms.

Teaching diversity, inequalities, and discrimination is going from theory to “real life” and identifying the main problems in the city from local to global. This second section could be intended for students to answer the following question: How can discrimination be addressed locally? By adding different examples or daily situations and promoting group debates about the diversity gap in different public dimensions; (Non)Representation of diversity in public institutions, Public Spaces, Political activism.

Finally, the last section is about the teaching and learning method. The teaching methodology combines master classes, where students approach theoretical concepts through readings and the professor’s talk. And a part in which collaboration and interaction with students, group work and identifying specific cases within the problems raised are necessary (second section). Based on this work, students identify this problem, and they approach to policy recommendations, public policy design, and report preparation.

Mocnik, Nena

Title: Navigating Difficult Conversations in Migration Studies

The field of migration studies encompasses a range of challenging and sensitive topics, including forced displacement, human trafficking, asylum processes, and the intricacies of integration and acculturation. These subjects not only offer a lens through which to understand the complex dynamics of human mobility and its broad societal implications but also touch upon deeply personal histories and traumas. In multicultural classrooms, where students often come from diverse migratory backgrounds, engaging with these topics can resonate on a personal level, potentially surfacing intimate traumas and current experiences of oppression, injustice, and discrimination rooted in historical and ongoing migration dynamics.

This presentation seeks to explore effective strategies for addressing these ‘difficult’ aspects within the educational context. It will delve into methodological approaches that honor and utilize students’ personal and familial experiences as valuable educational resources. The session aims to open up discussions on how to transform sensitive and potentially triggering subject matter into transformative and impactful lessons. By doing so, it intends to foster a learning environment that is not only informative and engaging but also empathetic and supportive of students’ diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Martín, Iván

Title: Teaching International labour migration: lessons learned over the years

I will present my experience and approach of teaching in international migration policies with an interdisciplinary approach over the last 10 years. The presentation will be articulated around three axes:

• Teaching on migration policies as opposed to teaching migration as a social or economic phenomenon.
• Teaching with a comparative approach (comparative research on migrations).
• Teaching different target audiences: undergraduates, master students, practitioners.

In all cases, a methodology based on “learning by doing”, qualitative, interdisciplinary research and the use of case studies will be presented.

As a conclusion, I will reflect on the implications of different labour migration policies and types of migration for the governance of cities of origin and destination, focusing on labour market integration and re-integration policies.

Schedule

09:00 – 09:05 Arfaoui, Rafik (Chair of the workshop). Introduction

09:05 – 09:25 Gebhardt, Dirk. Teaching migration governance

09:35 – 09:55 Rodríguez Reche, Cristina. Living together in diversity? Navigating super-diversity at the city level

10:05 – 10:25 Mocnik, Nena. Navigating difficult conversations in migration studies

10:35 – 10:55 Martín, Iván. Teaching international labour migration: lessons learned over the years

11:05 – 11:20 Coffee Break

11:20 – 12:00 Discussion

 

Bio of the participants

Speakers

Gebhardt, Dirk

Dirk Gebhardt is an associate lecturer at GRITIM-UPF and a trained urban geographer (PhD from Humboldt-University Berlin, 2009). He develops and accompanies mutual learning projects with city councils and NGOs across Europe on how to improve their reception and integration policies and does academic research on local policies and city networks in the same area. 

Rodríguez Reche, Cristina

Cristina Rodríguez-Reche holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2020). She got her PhD in the INMIX-UAB research group, which she is still affiliated with. She is Margarita Salas Postdoctoral fellow at GRITIM-UPF. As a researcher, her main interest lies in racialisation, religious diversity, morofobia, migration, social inclusion and inequalities.

As part of transfer activities, she has participated as an expert in Focus Groups on the results of European projects, STAND-UP: Standing against hate in the EU, co-directed by the EuroArab Foundation for Higher Studies (Granada, Spain). She has formed part, within the same research project, of the advisory committee for the European Parliament in its fight against hate crimes and speech. She is also part of the advisory board of the React Project “Research Action against Antigypsyism and Anti-Muslim Discrimination: An Intersectional Approach to Deconstruct Institutional Racism in Schools”. Cristina Rodríguez has also been part of the scientific committee of the Research Conference on Religion and Spirituality, organised by the research groups ISOR (UAB), CEIC (UPV), and INMIX (UAB) for five years, from 2017 to 2022. Since 2023 she is also part of IMISCOE’S SC RACED

Her scientific contributions include several articles published in high-impact and first-quartile journals, such as Ethnicities, Social Compass or Journal of Beliefs and Values.

Mocnik, Nena

Nena Mocnik is Maria Skłodowska Curie EUTOPIA-SIF COFUND Postdoctoral Fellow and a first Digital Humanism Fellow (awarded by Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action and IWM Vienna). As a researcher, educator and community worker, she is interested in the topics of collective traumas, identity (gender) violence, and art-based sociotherapy. In her current participatory action research, she explores the rapidly expanding internet and digital realms to offer solutions in reproductive health-related knowledge and community support to refugee mothers in displacement.

She is the author of two monographs (Trauma Transmission and Sexual Violence: Reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Settings, 2021) and her first book “Sexuality after War Rape: From Narrative to Embodied Research” (Routledge 2017) was awarded Bank of Montreal Award in Women’s Studies (University of Ottawa, 2018). She was recipient of several fellowships including EnTe Fellowship (New Europe College, Bucharest, 2016-2017), ICNC-Fletcher Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict (Tufts University, 2016), Brown International Advanced Research Institute Fellowship (Brown University, 2015) and Fulbright Visiting Scholar Fellowship (University of Southern California, 2014).

In 2018, she was invited as the external expert at EUROCLIO – European Association of History Educators, developing experiential and embodied pedagogical practices in history teaching. With financial support of the European Commission – European Remembrance program, and 7 university and NGO partners, she initiated and led a project “#Never Again Teaching Transmission of Trauma and Remembrance through Experiential Learning”. She was an editor-in-chief of special isues ‘Lessons from Sexual Violence in Mass Atrocity Crimes: Toward Preventive Pedagogies in History Education’ (2021); ‘Secondary Trauma in Field-Based Social Research’ and an edited handbook ‘Engaging with Historical Traumas: Experiential Learning and Pedagogies of Resilience (Routledge 2021).

Martín, Iván

Iván Martín is an economist. He is a Adjunct Professor (Profesor Asociado) at the Pompeu Fabra University, where he teaches a course on Comparative International Labour Migration Policies in the Master in Migration Studies. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and teaches at the Master in Global Affairs of the Université Mohamed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.

Between 2013 and 2016 he was Part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the European University Institute in Florence, as well as member of the Expert Group on Economic Migration of the European Commission and Key Expert on Labour Migration providing External Technical Expertise on Migration to DG DEVCO of the European Commission (ETEM V Project). Formerly, he has been Senior Research Fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs-CIDOB (2014), where he was the scientific coordinator of a FP-7 project on Arab Youth; Associate Research Fellow at the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales in Madrid (2008-2013); Research Administrator at the College of Europe, Natolin Campus, Poland (2010-2011); Director of the Socio-Economic Forum of Casa Árabe (Arab House) and its International Institute for Arab and Muslim World Studies in Spain (2006-2008); and Adjunct Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2002-2006). He has coordinated several international research projects and since 2010 he has worked as consultant and trainer on labour migration, youth employment and migration and development in Southern Mediterranean Countries, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America for the International Organization for Migration, the International Labour Organization, the European Commission (DG DEVCO and EU Delegation in Morocco), the European Training Foundation, the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures, the EuroMed Migration project and the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat, as well as AECID and the Swiss Development Cooperation.

Chair of the session

Arfaoui, Rafik

Rafik Arfaoui is a Postdoctoral researcher at GRITIM-UPF, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona – Spain). He works on the research project “BROAD-ER: Bridging the Migration and Urban Studies nexus” (2022-2025), led by Ricard Zapata-Barrero (UPF, Barcelona), Ahmet Içduygu (Koç University, Istanbul) and Jan Rath (University of Amsterdam). His main research interests deal with the urban reconfigurations in both large-sized cities, small & medium-sized cities, and rural areas by the reception of asylum seekers and refugees’ narratives, practices, and policies. 

Rafik holds a PhD in Social Geography & Urban Planning in December 2021 from the University of Clermont Auvergne (UCA), France. His PhD’s dissertation titled “Multiple territories, plural reception. Social geography of the reception of asylum seekers in non-metropolitan areas” has received in April 2022 the “Great Prize of the city of Clermont-Ferrand” for the year’s best dissertation at UCA.

In addition to his Research track, he has 5 years’ experience of teaching Geography and Urban Planning as a teaching assistant at UCA (2017-2019; 2022-2023) and as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Polytechnic University Hauts-de-France (2019-2020) and at the University of Picardie Jules-Verne (2021-2022).