Migrations Summer Institute

Our annual summer institute, co-sponsored by theMario Einaudi Center for International Studies, immerses early-career scholars in the study of racism, dispossession, and migration in a collaborative space.

Each year, the institute addresses a new topic under the leadership of a faculty researcher.

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• Migrations Summer Institute

Our annual summer institute, co-sponsored by theMario Einaudi Center for International Studies, immerses early-career scholars in the study of racism, dispossession, and migration in a collaborative space. Each year, the institute addresses a new topic under the leadership of a faculty researcher.

The deadline for applications is April 4, 2022.

The Ongoing Afterlife of Dispossession in Africa and the Americas

Virtual, July 11–22, 2022

This year's institute will look closely at dispossession from a comparative perspective, engaging early-career scholars in African studies, Native American and Indigenous studies, and settler colonial studies. We will host 20 participants over two weeks.

• Faculty leader: Judith Byfield, professor of history, College of Arts and Sciences

• Stipend: $2,000 per participant

Exploring the generative spaces created by the advocates and critics of settler colonialism, our discussions and activities will be guided by four overarching goals:

1. Consider how examples from Africa can add to and/or challenge theoretical insights from Native American and Indigenous studies and settler colonial studies
2. Develop more comparative analyses of the processes of dispossession and its contemporary forms such as resource extraction
3. Explore methodologies for creating new knowledge about dispossession and its ongoing consequences
4. Examine efforts by artists and filmmakers to tell more nuanced stories of dispossession and imagine pathways towards more just futures

Overview

Participants will compare the structural inequalities created in the wake of European possession of Indigenous lands and the foundational features of settler colonialism that continue to frame political, economic, cultural, and environmental practices, paying particular attention to scholars and activists who challenge efforts to normalize or erase dispossession and the violence that it has and continues to generate.

In addition, we will explore the ways in which creative artists, especially filmmakers, work to transform narratives of dispossession and settler colonialism while imagining futures no longer defined by these histories. The institute's outcomes will be:

• Dialogue with scholars, activists, and creative artists addressing the ongoing consequences of dispossession and settler colonialism
• Curricular design
• Digital humanities resources
• A publication featuring contributions from participants of the summer institute

Schedule

The institute will be Monday through Friday over two weeks, held from 10–12:30 and 2–4:30 (ET).

We will feature lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and film screenings by leading scholars in African studies, Native American and Indigenous studies, and settler colonial studies. At least two events each week will be open to the general public.